There is a need for a review of the criminal justice system administration in Nigeria so that victims of crime are no longer treated as mere witnesses when they are injured.
Chairman of the Police Service Commission, DIG Hashimu Argungu, made the call during a Review and Validation Workshop on the Draft Toolkit for Enhancing the Capacity of Police Oversight Bodies held in Abuja.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) organized the workshop on Tuesday in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The workshop is coming on the heels of a series of cases of human rights violations across the country involving the police and other members of the nation’s security agencies.
The latest of the violations is the violent clampdown and arrest of protesters during the recent #EndBadGovernance# protests, which were held in August 2024.
Argungu stressed the urgent need for rebalancing the justice rights for victims of crime, insisting that justice be rebalanced to ensure that victims of crime are treated with dignity, compassion, and justice.”
According to the PSC Chairman, victims today suffer pain, shock, humiliation, loss of control, and powerlessness at the hands of their offenders, adding that if victims are injured and the offenders cannot pay reparation, it should be their right to be afforded compensations from the state/Federal government.
“It should be their right to participate in the criminal court process with legal representation to protect their safety,” he said.
DIG Argungu informed the forum that in tackling human rights violations, the Commission is going to pay much attention to complaints pertaining to human rights violations and abuse of law enforcement powers, particularly those of arrest, detention, interrogation, and general treatment of suspects.
He declared that the police’s jurisdiction in the area of public wrongs, not private wrongs, would be upheld.
“Civil matters and tortuous liabilities belong in the court.
“Issues of land matters, rent matters, marital, contractual agreements issues are purely civil matters, and the complainants should be advised to go for civil suits,” he advised.
