The Human Right Writers of Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) has called on the the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to ensure that its operatives abide by the law of the land in the trial of all suspects in their custody.
National Coordinator of HURIWA Emmanuel Onwubiko, made the call flanked by the family and friends of one Friday Audu, a suspect in the custody of EFCC.
The group urged the Commission to ensure that its operatives did not yield to lawlessness while carrying out their duty on behalf of the Nigerian state as well as serving anyone in power against the truth.
They condemned the act of allegedly presenting Audu as convict, while the case was subsisting in court.
Spokesman of the family Salifu Ogwuche Usman, said the “Commission owed Nigerians due process in handling any matter related to its citizens, for the protection of the commission’s image and that of the nation in the global community”.
He noted that the Commission’s action of convicting a suspect in the media with a mugshot was against the principle of presuming a suspect innocent until convicted by the court.
“To do so would amount to capitulating to the bait of a lawless commission, which is quick to haul individuals before courts on spurious charges but yet has total disregard for the process of the rule of law and the judiciary.
“No orchestrated falsehood and character assassination anchored on a mugshot obtained by compulsion will succeed in ruining an innocent man.
“We believe in the rule of law, and we are confident that the innocence of Citizen Audu Friday, will be established in a free and fair trial.
“We are, therefore, calling on the EFCC to retreat from its ignoble course of trying to rail-road the process by engaging in prejudcial lynching of a citizen whose human rights it has continued to violate since the beginning of the year”.