The Lagos State House of Assembly has passed an amended version of the Criminal Justice Law of the state barring the police henceforth from parading suspects before the media.

The bill was passed yesterday at a sitting presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, on behalf of the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa.

Section 9(A) of the newly passed bill states: “As from the commencement of this law, the police shall refrain from parading any suspect before the media.”

The bill also stipulates conditions under which a policeman can arrest without a warrant, one of which is that a person must be reasonably suspected to unlawfully be in possession of firearms or other such dangerous instruments.

A subsection of the bill also barred the police or any other agency from arresting a person ‘in lieu of any other person in a criminal matter’.

The bill adds that a person who is arrested “shall be given reasonable facilities for obtaining legal advice, bail or making arrangements for defence or release”.  A suspect should also be “accorded humane treatment, with the right to dignity of the person; not subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment; be brought before the court as prescribed by this law or any other written law; or be released conditionally or unconditionally”.

In the same vein, members also adopted the recommendations of the report of the Committee on Housing on the “Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority Bill,2020”.

The Bill seeks to regulate the practice and procedure of foreign investments in real estate and its compliance with the Federal Acts, Laws of Lagos State and International Best Practices.

After a voice vote on the Bills, the deputy speaker directed the acting Clerk of the House, Olalekan Onafeko, to transmit the bill to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for assent.

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