Oshiomhole noted that the bill will lead to a licence for extortion and blackmail and it will end up being uncontrollable.
The senate has stepped down a bill seeking to prescribe standard and conditions of licence for operation and practice of private investigators in the country.
The bill was stepped down for further consideration following an extensive debate during Wednesday’s plenary.
The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Osita Ngwu (PDP, Enugu West) had earlier noted that the bill when passed will provide much greater clarity and consistency in the regulation of the information gathering practices of private investigators.
According to him, it will help to enhance capacity to access information relevant to investigation, and also help protect the privacy of citizens.
He further stressed that it will provide a penalty for professional negligence and prescribe offences for persons without license as well as encourage industry-based training to maintain capacity.
The senator expressed worry that the unregulated access, use and brokerage of confidential information may result in serious socioeconomic and even political consequences.
He said: “Private investigators, according to Wikipedia, are persons who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. They often work for lawyers in several cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims, others do background checks and due diligence and many other services.
“Nevertheless, they are a vital segment of the civil and criminal justice administration and law enforcement across the globe. Other private investigators specialize in concrete matters, including anti-fraud, laws prevention, and internal investigation of employee misconduct such as employment service violation and sexual harassment, the protection of property rights and due diligence investigations. The practice of private investigators is well established in countries like the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, etc.”
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Despite the support from several senators, Sen. Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North) objected to the second reading of the bill stressing that it is risky to licence anyone to have the right to approach anyone to ask certain questions because the law has empowered them to do so.
According to him, it will be a licence for extortion and blackmail and it will end up being uncontrollable.
He said, “I think that if there was to be need to have private investigation, which is currently vested in the police, DSS, EFCC and the ICPC all of these are charged explicitly.
“There are individuals who are approved to carry out private investigations, such that we now need the law to regulate it. I am not aware that this is the state of affairs as of now. All of these exist for the one purpose, to investigate and where convinced to prosecute.
“I do not think that even the mover of this motion has reflected deeply enough about possible abuse. We have a duty with democracy to prevent, to protect the privacy of any Nigerian, whether small or powerful and I urge my colleagues, if we cannot shut down this bill. If anybody thinks we need to do, to revisit it, then it will require that we have all the details.”
Sen. Titus Zam (APC, Benue North West) who also called for the stepping down of the bill stressed that the country already has enough agencies and bodies that are charged with the duty of investigating all matters of crimes be it financial, civil or political.
Sen. Saliu Mustapha (APC, Kwara Central), also suggested that the country should first establish a national forensic institute to ensure thorough and unbiased analysis of evidence before considering private investigators.
On his part, Sen. Aminu Abbas (PDP, Adamawa Central) noted that it is a duplication of effort because most of the institutions already carry out investigations and even go to court to present evidence.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio stressed on the observation of the senators who called for the bill to be stepped down, saying, “In a country where we have numerous wives, any of the wives can approach a private investigator and they will bring very false evidence against you and at the end of the day you will end up being scandalised and social media will take that report as if the report is true.”
He asked the bill sponsor to either step the bill down for further consultation or allow the bill to be stepped down permanently by the senators present.
In response to Akpabio’s remark, Sen. Ngwu urged that the bill be stepped down to enable him return and re-work it and also consult more of his colleagues.
