Lawyer Advocates Domestication of Administration of Criminal Justice Act in States

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

A Benin-city-based legal practitioner, Mr. Douglas Ogbankwa, has said the domestication of the administration of criminal justice acts by states will lead to decongestion of prisons across the country.

Listing the steps to decongest the prisons in an interview with journalists in Benin City, capital of Edo State, wednesday, Ogbankwa noted that the judiciary has greater role to play in prisons decongestion through the magistrates who should give lenient bail conditions for misdemeanor offences.

The legal practitioner bemoaned the fact that a close look at catalog of prions in Nigeria, those in the awaiting trial category were far more than the convicted ones.

He said administration of criminal justice has been passed at the federal level in the 2015 legislation but has not been domesticated in many states, which provides avenue for prisons to be decongested.

According to him, “We need to domesticate the administration of criminal justice act in all the states of the federation. Only few states in Nigeria like Lagos, Anambra and one or two others have domesticated that law.”
Besides, Ogbankwa stressed the need for the Nigeria legal system to make bail conditions flexible, especially for the indigent people.

“The state Ministries of Justice and the Police Prosecutors should not oppose bail application where it appears as if there is no need to do so.

“All over the world, the practice is that when a person is accuse of a crime, even if it is treason, he is release on bail, except it is terrorism of course, pending the trial.

“Oscar Pristorious, the double amputee in South Africa, who was alleged to have killed his girlfriend, before he was arraigned, when he got to the police station, he was released on bail, even when it was clear that he actually killed the young lady.

“When he was arraigned, he was again released on bail. When he was convicted for man slaughter and went on appeal, he was released on bail pending the determination of the appeal.

“Again, most times, when lawyers get variation of bail condition, the attitude of the judicial officers is that most times they don’t want to vary and if they do, it is just little or in a way that the accuse person may not be able to meet up with the bail conditions.

“There are also situation where magistrate grant someone bail, the next thing he or she does is to leave the court premises almost immediately thereby leaving such accuse with an option of bailing himself in prisons.
“There should also be a leeway for the accused to perfect documentation for bail.

“All these are avenues to decongest the prisons. Our legal system should be able to take a look at this and make amend in our laws where necessary,” Ogbankwa said.

Stressing on the need to amend the Criminal Code, he said the code as presently constituted, is actually a colonial legislation that needs to be overhaul to meet up with the reality of the times.

He also added that to decongest the prisons, a cursory look at the law that empowers chief justices must be taken advantage of to the fullest.

According to him, “The law gives the chief justice of the state, who is the chairman of judicial service commission, the powers to go to prisons at any time to release those who in his or her opinion, shouldn’t be in prisons.

“Most times, this prison visit takes place once in a year, whereas the laws give the state Chief Judge the latitude to go there at any time.”

He therefore called for a synergy among the judiciary, security agencies and the legal practitioners in order to decongest the prisons.