Nigerian lawyers have criticised the “evil practice” of policemen using fake warrants from unrelated courts following news of Chief Magistrate Emmanuel A. Jatau being stripped of all magisterial duties.
Jatau was accused of judicial misconduct and forgery, and the Nasarawa State Judicial Service Commission (JSC) demoted him from Chief Magistrate II (GL 15) to Senior Magistrate I (GL 14) in addition to relieving him of magisterial duties.
FIJ learnt that this came months after Inibehe Effiong, a human rights lawyer, petitioned the commission against Jatau, who served in Masaka, Nasarawa.
The document announcing the demotion of the magistrate
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The petition addressed a practice by the police, in which they obtain fake warrants from Nasarawa magistrates for cases outside the jurisdiction of the state.
This played out in the case of Chioma Okoli, a Lagos-based Facebook user represented by Effiong, after she stood trial for conspiracy and cyberstalking over her review of a tomato mix produced by Erisco Foods Limited.
“The evil practice of the police brandishing fake warrants from Nasarawa Magistrates for cases outside the State has been going on for a long time. Lawyers have been complaining,” Effiong wrote on X on Saturday while commending the Nasarawa judicial commission’s decision.
Chioma Edoka Okoli was arrested in Lagos, detained in Lagos, and moved to Abuja where she was further detained. She has never been to Nasarawa in her life.When we sued them, they concocted arrest warrant and remand warrant from Nasarawa. She was not arrested or detained in… pic.twitter.com/u533ieYDzl— Inibehe Effiong (@InibeheEffiong) January 11, 2025
The lawyer disclosed that even though Okoli had never been to Nasarawa, coupled with the fact that she was first arrested for her review in Lagos and later moved to Abuja, arrest and remand warrants against her were fabricated from Nasarawa.
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“Chioma Edoka Okoli was arrested in Lagos, detained in Lagos, and moved to Abuja where she was further detained. She has never been to Nasarawa in her life,” Effiong wrote.
“When we sued them, they concocted arrest warrant and remand warrant from Nasarawa. She was not arrested or detained in Nasarawa.
“How do you remand someone without proper proceedings taking place as mandated by law? Can a court remand someone who hasn’t been brought before it? When we demanded to inspect the court’s file, he refused.
“We demanded for the CTCs of the warrants and what we got were documents exhibited by the police in a fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court with the stamp of the Federal High Court Lagos and name of registrar of the FHC on them.
“How can documents certified in Nasarawa by a Magistrate who purportedly issued them in Nasarawa be identical with the exhibits relied upon by the police in Lagos?
“The police only handed him the fake documents to certify when we demanded for the CTCs. What’s the business of a Magistrate in Nasarawa with a case in Lagos?
“I commend the Nasarawa State Judicial Service Commission for showing him the way out. Nigeria will never change if those who desecrate public offices are not held accountable.”
He also noted that Seprebofa M Oyeghe, his friend in Abuja, had to deal with the same issue in 2024.
Abdul Mahmud, another human rights lawyer, shared how the same magistrate from Nasarawa issued a similar warrant for his arrest in 2023.
“Great news! This same Chief Magistrate issued the useless Warrant of Arrest @PoliceNG used to arrest me in June 2023. The same magistrate issued the order FCID/Interpol to effect my arrest in October 2023,” he wrote on X.
The post Lawyers Call Out Police With Fake Warrants Following Nasarawa Magistrate’s Discipline appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.