In a bid to putting an end to corruption in the country, Practice Direction on the Administration of Criminal Act, 2015 has been signed by the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello as a pointer to how criminal cases should be managed by judges, prosecutors and investigators. VIVIAN OKEJEME writes.
In view of the virtual collapse of the criminal justice system in the country and undue delays encountered in the prosecution of criminal cases in trial courts, the leadership of the judiciary in a bid to ensure the judiciary delivers on its mandate enacted the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015. In a quite broad manner, the Act has provided for the administration of criminal justice in courts at the Federal Capital Territory and other federal courts except courts-martial which have separate rules of procedure.
Th ough, it is a federal enactment, some of the provisions are of general application throughout the country. In particular, arrests and detention of all criminal suspects shall be regulated by the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act. Purpose Th e purpose of the Act is to ensure that the system of Administration of Criminal Justice in Nigeria, promotes effi cient management of criminal justice institutions, speedy dispensation of justice, protection of the society from crime and protection of the rights and interests of the suspect, the defendant and the victim.
Th e Act has 495 sections with detailed provisions on arrest, warrants, investigation, trial, conviction, imprisonment, plea bargain, community service, parole, suspended sentence etc. States in the lead At the moment, apart from the FCT and Lagos state, seven other states have enacted the ACJA with seven or eight more states in the process of domesticating the Act. To ensure effi cient and eff ective 2015, ACJA Acts and to address the bottlenecks and things that cause delay in the administration of criminal justice, the Chief Judge (CJ) of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Ishaq Bello, signed an order of Practice Direction for the ACJA as a direction on how to apply the act to ensure more effi ciency in prosecution and investigation.
Practice direction is to carry into eff ect and ensure compliance with the Overriding Objective of the ACJA Act as expressed in section 1(1) of that Act. Th is section 1(1) in particularly insures effi ciency and speed in the case management of criminal trials and dispensation of justice, protecting the interests and fundamental human rights of the defendant, victim, witnesses and society. It also takes care of the right to fair hearing, and ensuring active participation of all parties to focus on matters that are genuinely in issue for trial thereby reducing delays and expense at trials.
Th is Practice Directions shall apply to all criminal trials in the Magistrates Courts, High Courts, Upper Area FCT: Setting the pace for practice direction on ACJA There is something in this Practice Direction for prosecution and defence lawyers, judges, magistrates and everyone who is interested in orderly and proper dispensation of justice Courts and other courts that try criminal cases in the Federal Capital Territory.
Th e CJ said the Practice Direction will go further to ensure that the judiciary sets up panels as interim measures to off set backlogs of cases. Th is, he said will assure that high rate of awaiting trial inmates will soon be dealt with in the FCT. He said the dream was to have a system of adjudication that is full of integrity. Justice Bello also stressed that apart from the Practice Guide helping in the implementation of the ACJA, it will go further to ensure that the judiciary sets up panels as interim measures, adding that investigation and prosecution panels will be given a timeframe to work. Th e act which will ensure that high rate of awaiting trial inmates will soon be dealt with in the FCT. Th e Practice Direction also empowers the judge to award cost against a counsel that is absent in court on an agreed date. According to Paragraph four, Order Seven, “Where a counsel who was present in court and agreed on the next adjournment date fails to attend the hearing without good reason or suffi cient notice, costs may be awarded against him.”
Also paragraph eight of the same order says: “Where a counsel holding brief for another counsel is unable to proceed with the business of the day, due to his unpreparedness, costs may be awarded against him personally.” Furthermore, the practice direction order on trial in absence states: “Where a defendant who has been granted bail, or having due notice of his trial date, fails without reasonable explanation to attend or refuses to attend court for his trial, and a summons and/or warrant as the case may be, has been issued to compel his attendance without success, the trial shall continue in his absence.” It added that neither the seriousness of the off ence nor the severity of the punishment if convicted shall be a bar to proceeding with the trial in the defendant’s absence. Paragraph 10, Order three provides that: “A trial shall be concluded within a reasonable time and completed no later than 180 days from the date of commencement.”
Also, it orders that an application for a stay of proceedings in respect of a criminal case before the court shall not be entertained. Resolve to fi ght corruption Reacting to the development, the Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Chief Okoi Obono-obla SAN, said that the signing of the Practice Direction for the Administrative of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) showed the resolve of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to putting an end to corruption in the country. Obono-obla who is also the Secretary of the ACJA Monitoring Committee, said the signing “has further strengthen the resolve of this administration to fi ght corruption rigorously and squarely because we now have a direction on how criminal cases should be managed by judges, prosecutors and investigators.
Th is is a step in the right direction in the resolve of this government to end corruption in Nigeria.” On whether the new ACJA Practice Direction if signed earlier would have prevented the recent loss of some corruption cases, Obono-obla said “I do not think we should make an issue if we lost cases. It’s just the beginning. You know we have three hierarchies of courts, the trial court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. “Th ere are so many cases we have so you cannot just use three cases to judge us.
But I feel this Practice Direction will give further impetus to the fi ght against corruption and to ensure that cases are expeditiously heard. So, that we can have a country where law and justice reign supreme.” ‘It’s monumental’ Also speaking is a professor of law and member of the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC), Yemi AkinseyeGeorge (SAN) described the signing of the Practice Direction as monumental because since it is starting from the FCT, it will soon trickle down to other states.
“Th is practice directions are aimed at addressing the bottlenecks; things that cause delay in the administration of criminal justice. It is going to fasttrack trial of criminal cases in the FCT. Not only in the FCT, it is also going to percolate down through the system. It is also going to bring about speedy decongestion of the prisons,” he said. On the provisions of the Practice Direction for interlocutory applications, Akinseye-George noted that “when lawyers fi le bogus applications; applications that have no foundation in the law, judges are now empowered in criminal proceedings to award cost against the lawyer personally and such cost cannot be passed to the clients.” He said this is specifi cally indicated not only in the ACJA but also in this Practice Direction. He added that the provisions are not intended to intimidate anyone.
“Lawyers will enjoy it because some lawyers don’t want to delay proceedings. Th ey want cases to move fast. “So, there is something in this Practice Direction for prosecution and defence lawyers, judges, magistrates and everyone who is interested in orderly and proper dispensation of justice,” he concluded.
