Rivers Re-run Probe: Court Declares Police Panel Illegal

ABUJA-The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, declared as illegal, the Special Joint Investigative Panel that was constituted by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Idris Ibrahim, to uncover those behind violence that marred the December 10, 2016, legislative re-run election in Rivers State.

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike In a 106-paged judgment that lasted over five hours, Justice Gabriel Kolawole described the Police probe panel which included operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, as “a strange contraption whose existence will create legal doubt”.

Justice Kolawole held that the 15-man Special Joint Investigative Panel is a body unknown to any law in the country. He maintained that neither the Police Act, Security Agencies Act nor the 1999 Constitution, as amended, empowered the IGP to set-up and co-opt the DSS which is not answerable to him but to the Presidency, into the Rivers re-run probe panel.

According to the court, the Special Panel, in so far as it was not limited to the Nigerian Police Force over which the IGP has authority, but co-opted another security agency, does not have the backing of any known law in Nigeria. “It is to this extent that the panel is unknown to the Nigerian Law or Criminal Justice System, even though its findings may be useful to bona-fide security agency as a working document”.

The court however acknowledged that under section 4 of the Police Act, the IGP, has the power to constitute an investigative panel. Meanwhile, the court declined to quash report of the panel, saying it would leave it to the discretion of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to in the exercise of his powers under section 174 of the constitution, decide whether any valid charge could be drafted on the basis of a report that emanated from “a body unknown to law”.

Justice Kolawole said he could have nullified report of the panel which Police has already submitted to the AGF, assuming a copy of it was tendered before the court by the plaintiffs. He said the court could not also disband the panel since it has already concluded the said investigation and submitted its report.

The Judge held that the Police panel lacks the power to indict any person or to make definitive pronouncements, saying it could at best make recommendations. He said the exercise that was conducted by the panel could at best be described as “ministerial in nature in line with the concept of covering the field”, saying it could neither be judicial or quasi-judicial in nature. Consequently, the court granted relief one in the suit that had the Rivers State Government, Governor Nyesom Wike and Attorney General of Rivers State as 1st to 3rd plaintiffs respectively. Earlier in the judgment, the court decried that despite the concept of separation of powers, a state Governor, even though regarded as the Chief Security Officer of the state, lacks powers to control the security apparatus in the state.

It noted that section 251 of the constitution only have governors “illusion of powers of command of Police in there states”. The court further observed that contrary to the doctrine of separation of powers, the way the constitution was drafted, Police Commissioners are not under obligation to comply with order of the governor of their state, but that of the President.

The plaintiffs had through their lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, approached the court to challenge the legality of the Police probe panel which they said was merely out to indict and ridicule governor Wike. Aside the IGP, other defendants to the suit were the DSS and a Deputy Commissioner of Police, Damian Okoro.
The plaintiffs prayed the court to restrain the defendants or their agents from enforcing or executing matters contained in a letter the IGP wrote to Wike on December 20, 2016, pertaining to the probe. Wike told the court the IGP had in the said letter entitled, ‘Investigation into allegations of crimes committed during