be brought before a judge
within one or two days, the
majority of suspects were
deprived of their liberty for
longer periods without the
required judicial oversight.
(j) The maintenance of
custody registers should be
scrupulously ensured,
including recording of the
time and place of arrest, the
identity of the personnel, the
actual place of detention, the
state of health upon arrival
of the person at the detention
centre, the time at which the
family and a lawyer were
contacted and visited the
detainee, and information on
compulsory medical
examinations upon being
brought to a detention centre
and upon transfer
The Criminal Code requires the
proper maintenance of records
of any person in confinement
and punishes neglect or
deliberate false entries.
However, in practice these
records were frequently
incomplete or inaccurate.
Lagos State has implemented a new
computerized case tracking system,
following cases from arraignment through
their conclusion. However, the tracking
commences only when a detainee is
produced before court, not at the point of
arrest.
Non-governmental sources: Reports have
been received that in some police stations
the police register detainees on a piece of
paper for bribery purposes. Once the
detainees have paid the so called “police
bail”, they are released.
(k) Confessions made by
persons in custody without
the presence of a lawyer and
that are not confirmed before
a judge shall not be
admissible as evidence
In spite of legal provisions that
provide that a confession made
by an accused person cannot be
used to secure a conviction,
Nigeria’s criminal justice
system relies heavily on
The new criminal procedures in Lagos
State provide for video taping of
interrogations; where no video is available,
the lawyer of the suspect should attend the
interrogation.
Non-governmental sources: Under the
Evidence Act, confessions extracted under
inducement, threat or promise cannot be
used in court. However, in practice,
confessions are often allowed to be used in
court. When allegations of torture arise in
by Lagos State, magistrate courts can open
on Saturdays to ensure suspects can be
brought before a court within 24 hours.
Despite this, many detainees still spend
weeks in police detention after their arrest
without being seen by a judge.
A/HRC/13/39/Add.6
136
facilities under the control of
their interrogators or
investigators for more than
the time required by law to
obtain a judicial warrant of
pre-trial detention, which
should not exceed 48 hours.
After this period they should
be transferred to a pre-trial
facility under a different
authority, where no further
unsupervised contact with
the interrogators or
investigators should be
permitted
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