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He added that “we have been able to overcome those challenges” and the quality of the evidence<br />
collected at arrests in Plateau State has improved. 481<br />
Suspects Charged to Court Without Evidence<br />
Judges and prosecutors observed that after the security services arrest people, the police will<br />
often simply gather all the detainees together, and charge them, en masse, before a magistrate’s<br />
court. A chief magistrate in Kaduna, who has presided over some of these cases, described the<br />
quality of evidence in these cases as “substantially bad.” Following the April 2011 violence in<br />
Kaduna, he said he reviewed all the cases brought before his court:<br />
Nobody was specifically mentioned in any of the FIRs [first information reports] as<br />
saying, so, so person did so, so thing at so, so place. None. They just said they were<br />
arrested at various places in Kaduna and environs committing [a list of] offenses. 482<br />
Similarly, a High Court judge in Kaduna described the state of the case files that were brought<br />
before his court:<br />
There was no mention of the person killed, where they were killed, or who actually<br />
killed them, but [the police] lumped about 50 people in one FIR and said they killed<br />
people, without mentioning the people [killed] and without mentioning where the<br />
person was killed…. The FIRs did not disclose the commission of an offense. It was<br />
just an allegation to enable [the police] to hold the person.<br />
The High Court judge recalled that because the police failed to allege any basic facts of a crime, “I<br />
granted bail for all of them.” 483 The chief magistrate added that the police made no progress on the<br />
cases assigned to his court, and after repeated delays he also granted bail to all of the suspects:<br />
After some adjournments it became apparent that the police were simply asking for<br />
adjournment upon adjournment in the name of investigation. When I asked them to<br />
bring the case diaries for me to see the level of investigation, they refused to bring<br />
them; [when I asked them to] send the case diary to the state Ministry of Justice for<br />
481 Human Rights Watch interview with Ibrahim Umar, assistant commissioner of police in charge of State CID, Plateau State, Jos, March<br />
12, 2012.<br />
482 Human Rights Watch interview with a chief magistrate in Kaduna, Kaduna, November 10, 2011.<br />
483 Human Rights Watch interview with a High Court judge, Kaduna, November 2011.<br />
“LEAVE EVERYTHING TO GOD” 126
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