By Emma Amaize
WARRI—DELTA State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Chief Victor  Otomewo, has directed that the police should hands off the prosecution of criminal cases in magistrate and lower courts in the state.

Vanguard learnt, yesterday, that in exercise of his powers under Section 211 of the 1999 Constitution, the Attorney General instructed that with effect from February 1, prosecution of criminal matters in magistrate and lower courts in the state would be handled personally by him or by state counsel in the Ministry of Justice.

The measure, according to our source, is to remove the bottleneck and inherent problems that characterize prosecution of criminal cases by the police prosecutors, some of who are not lawyers and so, find it difficult to stand their grounds in the face of legal fireworks from lawyers, who are trained in the conduct of criminal matters in court.

Reacting to the development, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, Delta State in a statement,  by its chairman, Benefit Orugbo and secretary, Chief Fred Omeroyone, hailed the Attorney General for his interest for effective dispensation of justice in the state.

The committee also tasked the new Commissioner of Police in the state to “urgently direct officers in his command in Asaba to, henceforth, accept citizens resident in other parts of Delta State to take their relations and friends on bail as surety at the Police Force Headquarters, Asaba in matters involving suspects transferred from other parts of the state.”
“ It is worthy of note that the jurisdiction of the NPF, Headquarters, Asaba covers all the local government areas of Delta State and it will be sheer wickedness and a  policy likely intended to extort money from unsuspecting members of the society, for the investigating team in a matter at the Police Force Headquarters, Asaba,  to insist that landlords in Asaba or those resident in Asaba are the only qualified persons to surety a suspect that is transferred from other parts of Delta State to the Police Headquarters, Asaba before such suspect(s) are released on bail.

This is one task the new Commissioner of Police should address to prove to Deltans that he is human rights friendly”, the group added.

On the Anti_Terrorism Bill recently passed by the Senate, it said, “Attractive as the  Bill recently passed by the National Assembly,  prescribing death penalty for any act of terror,  including kidnapping, pipeline destruction or similar acts that lead to loss of human life may appear, a government that is selective in its anti_corruption crusade and not committed to full, just and effective implementation of our laws in the country would record little or no meaningful success in fighting crime,  as our years of experience have shown that we have plethora of laws to curb crime, but those in charge of their implementation lack the will to discharge their duties in the fear of God”.