TWENTY FOUR HOUR RULE AND THE RIGHT TO PERSONAL LIBERTY IN NIGERIA: HOW FAR HAS RELEVANT EXTANT JUDICIAL PROCEDURES HELPED US ON THE PATH TO LIBERTY?

Abstract

The right to personal liberty is guaranteed under the Nigerian Constitution. This right is not absolute and may be curtailed in a number of instances some of which are, in the main, related to the commission or suspicion of commission of a criminal offence. Once the right is curtailed, the Constitution makes provision for release or charge of the person detained or arrested to court within twenty four hours especially if there is a court of law within forty kilometers radius of the place of where the person was arrested or detained. However, practice has shown that some state agents like Nigeria Police do not observe this “twenty four hour rule†which help to ensure the liberty of person living in Nigeria. The enforcement of this Constitutional right in court is facilitated by two extant judicial procedures. However, a close examination of these two procedures shows that their provisions contain a germ which can be exploited by those who do not want to observe the constitutional twenty four hour rule. We therefore suggested ways these provisions can be amended or strengthened to enable them assist the Procedures in propping the twenty four hour rule and invariably safeguarding the liberty of person living in Nigeria.