This comment is NOT ABOUT the merit or validity of the conviction of Funke AKINDELE and her husband.
▪️It is rather on whether the Magistrate Court, Ogba, Ikeja, had validly sat on 06/04/2020, to take the arraignment of Funke AKINDELE and her husband on charges relating to an alleged violation of COVID-19 Regulations or Lockdown directives of the Lagos State Government, in view of the fact that the ENTRY INTO COURT PREMISES GUIDELINES NO 2 issued by or on behalf of the Lagos High Court CJ to take effect from 31/03/2020 had earlier suspended all court proceedings and sittings in Lagos State and excluding only cases bothering on terrorism, armed robbery , homicide, and other non-bailable offences.
▪️The argument has been advanced that since Funke Akindele’s alleged offence was a BAILABLE offence, the Court lacked powers to validly sit to take her arraignment and trial during the period that the ENTRY INTO COURT PREMISES GUIDELINES NO 2 subsists.
▪️Respectfully, I hold a contrary view. My opinion on is that courts can sit during lockdown to take arraignment of alleged violators of COVID-19 Regulations or Lockdown Directives.
▪️The question to be asked is whether the issuance of the ENTRY INTO COURT PREMISES GUIDELINES NO 2 by or on behalf of the Hon CJ of Lagos State had/has suspended the application of, or had/has overridden of SECTION 35(4) & (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which provides as follows: ”Any person who is arrested or detained in accordance with subsection (1) (c) of this section shall be brought before a court of law within a reasonable time …”
”(5) In subsection (4) of this section, the expression “a reasonable time” means – (a) in the case of an arrest or detention in any place where there is a court of competent jurisdiction within a radius of forty kilometres, a period of one day; and (b) in any other case, a period of two days or such longer period as in the circumstances may be considered by the court to be reasonable.”
▪️Besides, applying the Purposive Approach the Golden Rule, and the Mischief Rule of statutory interpretation, the ENTRY INTO COURT PREMISES GUIDELINES NO 2 cannot apply to stop or render illegal, the arraignment during the period of the lockdown, of a person who allegedly violated the conditions of the lockdown during the lockdown. Else, how would government be able to enforce the lockdown directives and the COVID-19 Regulations, especially as Government and its security & enforcement agencies have been advised to refrain from brutalizing citizens and from
engaging in any inhuman or dehumanizing treatment or approach?
▪️Further, April 06, 2020 WAS NOT a non-juridical day. Courts of law cannot validly sit on non-juridical days (Sundays or public holidays) unless ALL parties to the proceedings request or consent to such sittings.
▪️I would offer a more detailed opinion shortly.
Respectfully,
SYLVESTER UDEMEZUE
(UDEMS)
