We can’t have criminal justice system run by criminals – Adebayo

Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has vowed to overhaul Nigeria’s criminal justice system if elected in 2027.

Adebayo said the system as presently run helps rich criminals and corrupt public officials escape justice while jailing the poor for petty offences.

He spoke on Thursday in Lagos at an annual lecture organised by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, themed “Understanding Human Rights Beyond Emotions and Personal Interests.”

His address, titled “The Counter-Intuitive Architecture of Human Rights,” was delivered on his behalf by his Campaign’s Chief Media Adviser, Comrade Mark Adebayo, at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja.

“It’s just unfortunate that those who administer Nigeria’s criminal justice system are often adjudged, rightly or wrongly, criminals by the society,” Adebayo said.

The SDP Candidate further said, “This diminishes trust in the system and consequently creates a dangerous culture of self-help because the current system helps rich criminals and corrupt public officials to escape justice while the innocent or a petty criminal who steals a one thousand naira bread is sentenced to 10 years in jail. The one who steals trillions from the treasury is taken to and from court in luxury jeeps.

“Our administration will overhaul Nigeria’s criminal system in a way that ensures equal delivery of justice, punishes criminals and protects the innocent and the poor. We cannot have a criminal justice system run by criminals.”

Adebayo argued that human rights must be protected especially when it is unpopular to do so, noting that rights are not rewards for virtue but structural safeguards against arbitrariness.

Citing John Adams’ defence of British soldiers in the 1770 Boston Massacre, Jewish lawyers defending Nazi sympathisers, and defence counsels at the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal, he argued that defending due process for “monsters” protects the innocent.

“The true metric of a society’s commitment to human rights is not how it treats its saints, but how it treats its perceived monsters,” he said.

He also challenged civil society to move beyond what he called “prebendal activism” and confront out-of-school children, electoral manipulation and clampdown on protests.

“If Chief Gani Fawehinmi were alive today and Babangida were to suffer unjust treatment, Gani would be the first to stand in his defence,” Adebayo said.

He accused the current administration of building a “comprehensive rigging machine” ahead of 2027 because it cannot win on performance.