Family protests detention of 14-year-old boy over alleged rape

Family protests Police detention of 14-year-old boy over alleged rape

News Agency Of Nigeria

March 2, 2021 8:09 PM

The minor has been detained by the Police for nearly one month.

Police continue to hold the boy in detention in violation of a court order to release him (image used for illustration) [Guardian]

The family of a 14-year-old detained by the Police since February 5, in spite of court order to release him, on Tuesday called on the National Assembly to intervene in the matter.

The family, in the petition written by its lawyer, Ishaka Dikko, SAN, and sent to the IGP; the Chairman, PSC; the Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, and the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs, urged them to prevail on the police to obey the court order.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Yellim Bogoro of the Federal High Court sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State, had, on February 24, made the order, directing the police to release the minor on bail.

Dikko stated that the 14-year old, an SS1 student of Jofaq International College, Lafia, was arrested on February 5 by the police from the 'A' Division Police Station, Lafia, on the allegation of rape.

"In spite of the minor's denial that he did not commit the offence, the police has continued to keep him in detention.

"All efforts to have them grant bail to the minor, the police have continued to detain him at the CIID.

"The boy has been unwell and had to be treated, at the expense of his parents, at the Police Clinic in Lafia.

"As part of efforts to secure freedom for the detained minor, we filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit before the Federal High Court, Lafia, marked: FHC/LF/FHR/4/2021, following which Justice Bogoro, in a ruling on February 24, ordered the release of the detained minor, an order the police has refused to obey.

"While no citizen should condone any commission of crime especially the most heinous offence of rape, nobody should vilify or crucify any person suspected of commission of crime without due compliance with the law even if it is the most dreaded and heinous offence of murder," the lawyer said.

The lawyer called on the lawmakers, the IGP, and the PSC to compel the police to ensure the immediate release the minor.

Dikko said disciplinary measures should be taken against the officers involved in accordance with the Police Act, "as any officer found wanting, would have clearly breached the law and abused the most revered police uniform, worn to defend the citizenry."

News Agency Of Nigeria