The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, DIG Hashimu Argungu, rtd, has called for a review and ammendment of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 to accord crimes’ victims dignity and not to treat them as mere witnesses particularly when they are the ones injured.
He said the country need a Justice system that would compensate for the agony, pains and suffering victims went through in the hands of violators.
PSC spokesperson Ikechukwu Ani stated in a statement that Hashimu also called on the society to balance the injustice a crime victims suffered when his or her is violently violated, adding that “justice should be rebalanced to ensure that victims of crime are treated with dignity, compassion and justice”.
DIG Argungu stated this on Tuesday, September 17th 2024 at the Review and Validation Workshop on the Draft Toolkit for Enhancing the Capacity of Police Oversight Bodies organized by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimea (UNODC) held in Abuja.
According to PSC Chairman, crimes’ victims suffer pain, shock, humiliation, loss of control and powerlessness at the hands of crime offenders adding that ” if victims are injured and the offenders cannot pay reparation, it should be their right to be afforded compensations from the state/Federal government.
“it should be their right to participate in the criminal court process with legal representation to protect their safety”.
DIG Argungu also told his audience that in tackling human rights violations, the Commission “is going to pay much attention to complaints pertaining to human rights violations and in the area of abuse of law enforcement powers, particularly those of arrest, detention, interrogation as well as general treatment of suspects “.
He declared that the jurisdiction of the Police “in the area of public wrongs not private wrongs will be upheld” adding that civil matters and tortuous liabilities belong in the court. “Issues of land matters, rent matters, marital, contractual agreements issues are purely civil matters and the complainants should be advised to go for civil suits” he advised.