By Ekpenyong Ntekim

I read, with melancholy, the published comments of Prof. I. E. Sagay, SAN under the above caption, published in the media. The initial

Prof Itse Sagay, SAN and Governor Godswill Akpabio

temptation was to quietly draw Prof. Sagay, SAN’s attention to the obvious “error” inherent in his publicly held opinion. But his repeated and vigorous circulation of the venomous opinion gives him out as more of a political undertaker than a legal analyst.

Given his status as a Professor and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, his views are expected, without question, to attract some credit and seriousness. His latest piece on the above issue appears to have been written as a hired gun, in absolute bad faith and without a scant research, denting his intellectual and professional credentials.

In the said publication, Prof. Sagay, SAN argued as follows: “The most terrifying aspect of the current development is Akpabio’s throw back to the era of Military dictatorship by his enactment of an Akwa Ibom style Decree No. 2 reminiscent of the Buhari, Babaginda, and Abacha Military Regimes.

This Law, which was passed by the pliant Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly allows Akpabio, a Civilian Governor operating under a Constitutional government to order the detention of anyone for 14 days in the 1st instance and to renew the Detention Order after 14 days, at his discretion. This Detention Decree was passed into ‘Law’ on 31st March 2011, but has been used by a Magistrate, Obot to detain Akpanudoedehe, the ACN Governorship Candidate in Akwa Ibom State for an ‘offence’ allegedly committed on 21st March 2011, 10 days before the illegal law was passed. . . . . . It is important to stress that Under no circumstances is a Governor empowered to order the arrest of anybody, much less his rival contender for political office.”

I am of the sad opinion that Prof. Sagay, SAN so casually and surprisingly formed a publicly disseminated opinion (more of a political rhetoric than a legal commentary) on a statute without truthful recourse to the provisions of the Law in question. I am sure it would not come to the demonstrably “pliant” Prof. Sagay, SAN as a surprise that he sadly relied on a false and politically contrived information on the provisions of the said Law, thereby commenting most ignorantly and completely out of context.

It is true that the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly on 31st March 2011 amended the Akwa Ibom State Criminal Procedure Law, Cap. 39 Laws of Akwa Ibom State 2000 (not the Criminal Law, Cap. 38), substantially providing for remand proceedings in practice many States, including Lagos State since 1994.

The said Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Law 2011 simply provides the Magistrate Court, NOT The Governor, with jurisdiction to remand any person arrested for an indictable offence brought before the Magistrate for remand for probable cause (clearly defined therein) pending legal advice or arraignment before the appropriate Court or Tribunal for 14 days in the first instance and renewable for good cause shown, for another period of 14 days.

No portion of the said law empowers the governor of Akwa Ibom state to do anything, and it is available for public procurement as Gazette No. 13 Vol. 25. The essence of the Law is to provide for remand proceedings at the Magistrate Court, hitherto not available in the Criminal Procedure Law of Akwa Ibom State.

Prof. Sagay, SAN deliberately and mischievously suppressed the fact that section 1 of the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Law 2011 of Akwa Ibom State is not novel in Nigeria.

Section 236 of the Criminal Procedure Law of Lagos State 1994 contained similar provisions before its repeal and succession by the Criminal Procedure Law 2003 and, later, section 268 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2007, which similarly retains the same provisions. Indeed, the 2011 Akwa Ibom State version of the same Law under unmerited politicisation by Prof. Sagay, SAN provides for a remand of 14 days in each of the first and second instances in contradistinction to the 2007 Lagos State Law aforesaid which provides for a remand of 30 days in the first instance and renewable for another 30 days.

The first remand of 30 days in Lagos State under its 2007 Law, if made, would exceed the authorised maximum remand period of 28 days in Akwa Ibom State in both the first and second instances under the 2011 amendment to the Law. Therefore while in Lagos State, in an appropriate case, a remand may be made for up to 60 days, a remand in Akwa Ibom State may only be made, in an appropriate case, for a maximum period of 28 days.