YOUR RIGHT TO BE CHARGED TO COURT AND TRIED WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME.
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YOUR RIGHT TO BE CHARGED TO COURT AND TRIED WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME.
It is a constitutional guarantee that a person who is arrested or detained by the Police for the purpose of bringing him to court because he is suspected of committing a crime must be charged to court within a reasonable time. Now, what is a reasonable time depends on the following factors:
a. If the person is arrested and/or detained by the Police in a place where there is a court of competent jurisdiction within 40 kilometers from the Police station, the reasonable time is ONE DAY within which he must be charged to court.
b. Where there is no court within a 40-kilometer radius from the station, the reasonable time for him to be charged to court is 2 DAYS, or any other longer period which the court considers as reasonable given the particular circumstances.
So, it is unconstitutional for the Police to detain a suspect for days without releasing him on bail or charging him to court. It is also unconstitutional for the Police to detain a suspect for days for the purpose of punishing him, because anybody accused of any offence is deemed innocent until the court proves him guilty. It is not for the Police to declare an offender guilty or punish him for such offence. Their constitutional duty is simply to investigate the alleged crime and charge the suspect to court within the time prescribed by the Constitution if they believe there is a case against him. Otherwise, the arrested person should be released.
It is unlawful for the Police to detain a suspect in custody on the excuse that investigations in the matter have not been concluded. Where a person is arrested on suspicion of a crime and the investigation is still ongoing, the suspect is entitled to be released on bail pending when the investigations will be concluded. Such a person may be asked to report to the police officers in charge of the investigation on such dates and time as they deem fit. It is only upon a court order that a person may be allowed to be further detained pending the outcome of investigations.
Furthermore, where any person is arrested or detained on suspicion of committing a crime, and has been taken before a court of law within a reasonable time, he is entitled to be released if he is not tried within the following period of time:
a. If he is in custody or not entitled to bail, he must be tried within a period of 2 months from the date of his arrest or detention;
b. If he has been released on bail, he must be tried within a period of 3 months from the date of his arrest or detention.
If either of these 2 conditions above is not met, such a person is entitled to be released either unconditionally or upon such conditions as are reasonably necessary to ensure that he appears for trial at a later date. It is common in our judicial system to find persons accused of misdemeanor or simple crimes, languishing in jail awaiting trial for several months and years.
Infact, this category of persons awaiting trial constitutes the larger proportion of prison inmates, resulting in unnecessary congestion in the prisons. This is a clear breach of the Constitution. The supreme law of Nigeria says that if a person in prison awaiting trial is not tried within two months, he must be released. And, where he has been released on bail, he must be tried within three months, or be released. This release, though, is temporary and does not stop any further legal proceedings that may be brought against him for the same offence in the future.
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