Senior Advocate of
Nigeria and human right lawyer, Femi Falana, has said the plan by the military
to arrest hate speech offenders in the country in unlawful.
According to Falana, the Police had the lawful
right to carry out such arrest and not the military.
Backing up his claims he
said: “For the avoidance of doubt, section 4 of the Police Act has empowered
the Nigeria Police Force to arrest and prosecute criminal suspects in the
country.
“However, section 47 (1) of the CyberCrimes
(prohibition, prevention etc) Act provides that law enforcement agencies shall
have power to prosecute offences under this act while section 58 thereof
defines law enforcement agencies to include ‘any agency for the time being
responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the provisions of this
act.’
“As the Nigerian Army is not one of the law
enforcement agencies empowered by the Act and other penal laws, it should not
be permitted to enforce any of the laws against hate speeches.”
He also called for the implementation of
pre-existing laws targeted at dealing with hate speeches and not establishing
new ones.
- Daily Post
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