Section 14 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act ACJA (a law of the
Defendant) provides: “A suspect who is arrested, whether with or without a
warrant, shall be taken immediately to a police station, or other place for the
reception of suspect, and shall be promptly informed of the allegation against him
in the language he understands”.
With regard to the meaning of arbitrary detention, The Human Rights Committee
of the United Nations pointed out that "arbitrariness" is not to be equated with
"against the law", but must be interpreted more broadly to include elements of
inappropriateness, injustice, lack of predictability and due process of law. (See
Sambo Dasuki Vs. Federal Republic of Nigeria).
Referring to article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights which is parimateria with Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the
Grand chamber of the European Court of Human Rights underlined the particular
importance of the principle of legal certainty as follows:
"The Court stressed that where deprivation of liberty is concerned it is particularly important
that the general principle of legal certainty be satisfied. It is therefore essential that the
conditions for deprivation of liberty under domestic and/or international law be clearly defined
and the law itself be foreseeable in its application, so that it meets the standard of 'lawfulness'
set by the Convention, a standard which requires that all law be sufficiently precise to avoid all
risk of arbitrariness"
The justification given by the Defendant for the arrest and detention of the
Plaintiffs runs contrary to the express provisions of the Law.
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