WARRI — CONSTITUTIONAL lawyer, Dr. Akpo Mudiaga-Odje, has said it was wrong under the law for the police to arrest parents, relatives and friends in lieu of a person accused of committing a criminal offenc. 

Speaking at the two-day human rights clinic organised by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Delta State, in Warri, Mudiaga-Odje said a police officer who carried out such an action has acted against the law and should in addition to liability for a civil action be punished by the Police Authority.

“At some police stations, it is firmly written, bail is free. But I know, as a legal practitioner, that it is not true.”

However, Delta State Police spokesman, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Charles Muka, who equally participated in the human rights clinic,  insisted that bail was free. He challen-ged the citizens to insist that it is free and report the culprits to the  head of the respective police stations.

The constitutional lawyer also faulted the unnecessary detention of a surety by the police for failure to produce an accused person, saying “a charge against a surety for refusing to produce an accused is not known to the law.”

He described as bizarre and brazen, breach of fundamental rights in the country which culminates in a situation in which a debtor is hounded into prison for not fulfilling a civil obligation to his creditor.

Mudiaga-Odje said he was sure the CDHR in the state would take up such matter and other cases of human rights abuse free-of-charge for any citizen of the state.