…Criminal responsibility is personal and not transferable-Wanogho
Says the Delta Anti-kidnapping law is barbaric
Author: By Onitsha Shedrack, Brisibe Perez
The controversies generated by the demolition of Uncle P Guest House at Abraka, owned by Mr. Pius Ogbeni, by the agents of the Delta State government led by the Delta State Police Commissioner, Mr. Ikechuckwu Aduba, and the Transitional Chairman of Ethiope East Local Government Area, Hon. Onoriode Sunday, for allegedly habouring and serving as kidnapping den, for suspected kidnapping kingpin that has been terrorizing Ethiope East and its environs is far from over as Bar. Peter Wanogho, has described the action as not only unlawful but a gross violation of the fundamental human right of the owner of the hotel.
While reacting to the legality of the action of the Police viz-a-viz the provision of the 1999 constitution as amended, Chief P. Wanogho said that criminal responsibility is personal, and to that extent, criminal responsibility is not transferable, noting that any law that is not in consonant with the provision of the 1999 constitution as amended is deemed to be null and void.
He maintained that an innocent man cannot be made to suffer for the action or inaction of a criminal, and that any law that promotes the transfer of punishment from those who committed crime to an innocent person on account of some phone provisions of Delta State anti-kidnapping, is not only barbaric but also oppressive and inhuman and therefore should not be encouraged in this 21st century.
“First, criminal responsibility is personal, to that extent, criminal responsibility is not transferable. If Mr. A commits a crime, and even if Mr. A is the son of Mr. B, Mr. B cannot be held responsible for the crimes committed by Mr. A, because the responsibility and liability of crime is personal, not transferable and not vicarious.
“Coming to the specific one, a hotel is more or less a public resort center; any member of the public can book into a hotel. The mere fact that somebody booked into a hotel, and stayed in the hotel, does not transfer the ownership of that property to that lodger for all intent and purposes, it is a mere intent of passage; a mere lodger who is only accommodated for a fee. Even if he is a diehard armed robber, kidnapper, and there is no network between the criminal and the owner of the hotel where he lodged, how does that transfers criminal responsibilities to the owner of the hotel?
“To that extent, any law that holds the owner of a hotel liable because a kidnapper lodged there in the hotel is not only a bad law but it would be unconstitutional.
“Section 1 sub section 111 of the 1999 constitution as amended provides that if any other law is inconsistent with the provision of this constitution, this constitution shall prevail and that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be null and void”, he stated.
Bar. Wanogho continued: “Specifically, section 44 subsections 1, which is a fundamental right provision provides that no movable property or any interest in an immovable property shall be taken possession of compulsorily and no right over or interest in any such property shall be acquired compulsorily in any part of Nigeria except in the manner and for the purposes prescribed by a law that among other things requires the prompt payment of compensation.
“Therefore, even if the anti kidnapping law of Delta State gives the police the power to demolish a house, that law is contrary to the provisions of Section 44 (1) of the 1999 constitution as amended. And to that extent, the anti- kidnapping law will be null and void.
“In that case, law is to serve the interest of the society and any law that does not accord and serve the interest of the society, it goes against public policy. Why should Mr. A’s property be destroyed because Mr. B committed a crime? And if Mr. B happened to have even “hired” the house of Mr. A, is Mr. A the criminal? Who now gets the brut and pinch of the demolition?
“I think if there is such a provision in the law, it is not only barbaric, it is not only oppressive, not only offends common sense but also common reasoning and to that extent, my little advice to anybody so affected, the law should be tested. Let that provision ,if any, that allows the property of a citizen who has not committed a criminal offence to be destroyed or damaged by any government functionary, let it be tested in the court on the background of the fundamental right provision which is Section 44 (1) of the 1999 constitution as amended.
“In the 21st century, we cannot make barbaric law, such laws are not only barbaric but it offends common sense. Why should a man be suffering the debt of a crime he never committed? Assuming it is a law that makes provision that let the property of the man who committed the crime be destroyed, there can be some reasoning that he must have acquired that property through the proceeds of some criminality. But an innocent man who builds a hotel, because a lodger lodges in the hotel, and the lodger happens to be a kidnapper, was the owner of the hotel a participant in the commission of the crime that his hotel should be destroyed? Such a generic law is not only a bad law, but a barbaric law and all those who enact barbaric laws are themselves barbaric”.
It would be recalled that Uncle P Guest House at Abraka was demolished on at about 6:30pm on the 20thof July by a team of Policemen, solders and the Caretaker Chairman of the LGA, in operation, according to the owner of the Hotel, that lasted for only 30 minutes.
Giving account of what transpired before the hotel was demolished in emotion leaded voice at Urhobo Times Office, Mr. Pius Ogeni said that he received a call that some policemen brought a suspected kidnapper who had earlier lodged in the hotel from the 14th July and checked out on 19th July claiming to have come to shoot a movie at Obiaruko and Abraka axis, and then arrested his manager, and while making effort to bail the manager, he had another call at about 6pm that a team of Policemen, solders and the Caretaker Chairman of the LGA were on their way coming to demolish the hotel and before he could say Jack Robinson the hotel had been levelled to the ground.
While reacting to the claim by the Delta State CP as published in the Vanguard Newspaper of 24th July to the effect that the kidnapped victim was rescued from the hotel, he said that that was far from the truth as the alleged kidnapper had checked out of the hotel a day earlier, and that his room service changes the bedding every day, and did not see any kidnap victim, arguing that if the claims of the police were true, it was not only the manager that would have been arrested.
He also added that said kidnappers and the victim are siblings from the same father, one Mr. Odukuye whom they allegedly refused to give them money and they allegedly conspired to collect #1million from him, adding that the said man is fighting to close the case to avoid losing his children in the name of kidnappers. However, his hotel has been demolished.
In an SMS sent to Urhobo Times, Mr. Ogbeni said, “While these children are being remanded for conspiracy to dupe the father, my guest house has been unlawfully demolished by police CP and the Caretaker Chairman without investigation. I am pained and have been placed on bed rest, as banks are on my neck to payback their loans,” he added.
However, Mr. Ikechuckwu Aduba, the Delta State Commissioner of Police in a telephone interview with Urhobo Times, maintained that the police only carried out a standing order of the state security council by providing security for the operation, that the demolition was done by the government who provided the bulldozer, adding that the crime was actually perfected in the hotel and there was a confessional statement both by the hotel manager and those arrested to that effect, noting that three other DELSU, Abraka, students were among those arrested alongside the three siblings who perfected the plot.
“The decision to demolish the hotel was that of the State Security Council and not that of the police and there is a standing government order that if a victim is rescued from any apartment, such apartment would be demolished. This is not the first time such demolition has been done in Delta State. The bulldozer used for the demolition was provided for by the State Government whose order the Police is enforcing.
The police have started the prosecution of the three siblings alongside other suspects and they are being remanded in police custody”, he stated.
The Commissioner also called on hotel owners in the state to thoroughly screened their managers and staff to ensure that they are people without criminal tendency, as the manager of this hotel was involved in the act because he wanted to make quick money.
“The hotel may have been used in the past for criminality as it is hidden. The hotel owner should ask how the police manage to discover the hotel if not for the confessional statement of those arrested in connection with the crime.
“However, it is not the police that carried out the demolition as erroneously misconstrued by the owner of the hotel, but rather, the police acting on the directive of the State Security Council provided security while the state government carried out the demolition”, he continued.
He also added that the police don’t just go about demolishing people’s properties and what they did is to the best of their ability based on the available evidence.
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