The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, has called for caution towards creating an agency that will usurp the constitutional functions of the Nigeria Police.
Hon. Kalu raised the concerns in the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday during the consideration of the ‘Bill for an Act to establish the Nigeria Mines Ranger Service (NMRS) to prevent, combat illegal mining, artisanal mining and other crimes and related matters’, a Senate bill sponsored by the Majority Leader, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere.
A robust debate centred on Clause 23 of the bill, which deals with the power to obtain information, ensued during the consideration, wherein the Deputy Speaker questioned the scope of powers granted to the proposed service, asking whether the rangers were being positioned to perform police duties.
He said: ‘These rangers, are they going to be performing the work of the Police? I was thinking they will arrest and hand over to the Police for investigation. That is not what I am seeing in clause 23. I am worried about Clause 23, Power to obtain information’.
The clause read by the Deputy Speaker stated thus: ‘For the purposes of carrying out the powers conferred on the Service under this bill, the Commander-General or any other officer or employee of the Service authorized in that behalf shall have a right of access to all records of any person or authority affected by this bill for the specific purpose of discharging his duty under this bill’.
After reading the clause, Hon. Kalu said the service would be given the power of investigation if the bill was passed as presently drafted.
According to him, such powers ordinarily reside with the police.
He said: ‘That is investigation. It is police that will have the right to go into the record of individuals. Are you telling me that a mining ranger can, when they are invited against you or your properties or your premises, they have access to your private information. I thought it is the Police that is given the right to do that’?
In his response, Hon. Ihonvbere said the provision could be subject to amendment where necessary, but defended the need for preliminary investigative powers.
‘Well, they are subject to some amendment if necessary but if they do not carry out preliminary investigation of those they accost in the illegal mining, they cannot brief the Police adequately for prosecution in the law court. So, they are not taking over role of the Police,’ the Leader said.
The Deputy Speaker, however, insisted that there was a need to avoid conflict of mandate, stressing that the Ranger Service should be under the police in terms of investigation hierarchy.
‘The Chair is worried about clause 23 so that there will be no conflict with regards to the mandate of the Nigeria Police and the Ranger. In the order of hierarchy, the ranger should be under the police in terms of investigation. So, they are carrying out the duty of the Nigeria Police which the Constitution and the Police Act, in this case, have given to the Police, there will be a conflict,’ Hon. Kalu noted.
The Majority Leader further argued that the clause was intended to prevent wrongful arrests, citing recent incidents in which persons not engaged in illegal mining were arrested.
‘In the recent incident, there were persons who were arrested who were not even engaged in illegal mining. I think that clause simply tries to give the rangers the opportunity to separate the criminals from innocent persons and then proceed with the proper regular process under the Police,’ he said.
Maintaining his position, the Deputy Speaker said any arrest on reasonable suspicion should automatically activate the mandate of the Nigeria Police as provided in the Police Act.
‘I believe that when there is a reasonable suspicion and an arrest is conducted, those arrests should be the activation of the mandate of the Nigeria Police as allowed by the Police Act. Anything contrary to that will be usurping the office of the Nigeria Police. I have a problem with that so that we don’t end up creating something that will work against the grund norm of our country which has recognized in this case, the Police,’ he said.
Consequently, the House resolved to step down the bill for further legislative engagements.
‘We will step this bill down for further legislative engagements. Bill stepped down by the leave of the House. I am not impressed by the drafting of the bill because clause 23 doesn’t make so much sense to me,’ the Deputy Speaker ruled.