Impact Stories
Jangbol, a security officer, introduced the complainant to cow farming business. Acting as an intermediary between the seller and the complainant, Jangbol, collected money from the complainant and sent it to the seller. Unfortunately, the seller failed to deliver the cows to the complainant, leading to Jangbol’s arrest and arraignment on December 21, 2023, at Ogba Magistrate Court.
Our team took on the case on February 13, 2024, at the time he was about to change is plea of not guilty to guilty because he was frustrated and tired of being in prison awaiting trial. We advised him to maintain his innocence and on March 20, 2024, the seller was arrested and added as a co- defendant in the charge.
On May 9, the seller admitted to receiving N2,137,000.00 from Jangbol and requested time to return the money. The court released Jangbol based on this admission, striking his name from the charge.
According to Section 7 of the Administrative Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 and Section 36 of the Nigeria Police Act 2020, arrest by proxy is explicitly prohibited. Section 7 of ACJA 2015 states, “A person shall not be arrested in place of a suspect.” Similarly, Section 4 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of Lagos State, provides, “No person shall be arrested in lieu of any other person.” Arresting Jangbol instead of the seller, when it was clear the money was transferred to the seller, is illegal and a violation of Nanglir’s fundamental human rights.
