The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to publicly parade the embattled former head of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Team, DCP Abba Kyari, who was arrested on allegations of drug trafficking.
The civil rights advocacy group, in a statement issued on Sunday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, expressed its disappointment over what it termed “the discriminatory practice of parading of suspects by operatives of the NDLEA,” wondering why the same treatment had not been extended to Kyari.
Reacting to the weekend faceoff in Lagos between operatives of the drug bursting agency and drug peddlers in Lagos, HURIWA urged the hierarchy of NDLEA to review the “continued illegal parading of drug suspects yet to be convicted by any court of law, while the agency leaves certain ‘sacred cows’ unparaded obviously because they were connected to the high and the mighty in the society.”
It said, “HURIWA has noted with significant regret, the needless deaths that characterised the weekend raids of the NDLEA officials in the Partey area of Lagos which resulted in the senseless loss of lives.
“HURIWA further thinks that it amounts to double standards by the NDLEA officials who have refused to parade Abba Kyari two weeks after his indictment in drug trafficking-related offences but who then quickly paraded the alleged drug dealers in Lagos, minutes after their arrest.
“The NDLEA has constantly paraded suspected drug peddlers. Parading of suspects is, in itself, against the principle of law because of the presumption of innocence.
“It is however, double standards and gross favoritism to parade other suspects while Abba Kyari has not been paraded two weeks after his much publicised arrest.
“However, HURIWA again calls on security agencies to stop parading suspects, particularly when they are yet to be convicted,” the body said.