a. Any person arrested or detained has the right to remain silent and refuse answering
any question until he consults his lawyer or any other person of his choice.
This provision helps to prevent an arrested or detained person from making
implicating statements as a result of question asked by police man.
b.
Any
person arrested or detained must be informed in writing, within 24 hours, and
in a language that he understands of the fact and grounds of his arise or
detention. This means that if an arrested or detained person understands only
Igbo language and in writing why he/she is arrested or detained. This of course
is important for his /her defense.
c.
Anybody
who is arrested or detained must be tried within a reasonable time of such
arrest or detention or released on bails to ensure that he appears for trial on
a future data. This means that the police have no right to detain a person
beyond a reasonable time without taking the person to court.
REASONABLE
TIME MEANS-
i.
Where
there is a court of competent jurisdiction within a radius of 40kilometers, the
accused should not be detained for more than one day before he/she is taken to
court.
ii.
In
any other case, the accused may be detained for 48hours or such longer period
as may be considered reasonable by the court depending on the circumstance of
the case.
However, where the person detained is
accused of a grievous/capital offence, for instance, murder, he might be
refused bail especially if trial had started. But refusal of bail is by the
court and not the police.
(d)
where
a person is unlawfully arrested or detained, he is entitled to compensation and
public apology from the appropriate authority. This means that a person who is
unlawfully arrested or whose arrest is based on some malicious reasons other
than the ones stipulated by the law, is entitled to public apology and
compensation.
In the decided case of DLEGIWA
V. INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE,
Dele Giwa was arrested and detained by the police, for some days who
released him without trial. He sued contending the detention was an
infringement on this right to personal liberty. Upholding his contention, the
court awarded him N10, 000 damages and public apology.
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