A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE INNOVATIONS, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2015, IN THE NIGERIAN JUSTICE SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study
• Statement of the Research Problem

1. Aims and Objectives of the Study

• Scope and Limitation of the Study
• Significance of the Study
• Research Methodology
• Literature Review
• Organizational Layout

CHAPTER TWO:    THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT (ACJA), 2015

• The Act at a glance
• Overview of the Act
• Conceptual framework of the Act
• The Act as an Access to Justice
• The Right to Appear in Court of law

1. Advocacy for those who cannot meet the expense of it

• The Act as Rule of Law

2.4.3 Ideological Conflicts and Rule of Law in the Act

• Protection of human dignity.

CHAPTER THREE: INNOVATIONS UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2015

• Unlawful Arrest
• Constitutional Rights of Suspect

1. Arraignment in Court within Reasonable Time

• The Innovations brought by the Act
• Establishment of Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee
• Mandatory Inventory of Property
• Recording of Arrest and Confessional Statements
• Establishment of Police Central Criminal Registry
• Monthly Report by Police to Supervising Magistrates
• Monthly Inspection of Police Stations and other Detention Centres

CHAPTER FOUR: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2015.

1. Institutional Constraints in Criminal Justice Administration

• Problem of Institutional Framework
• The problems associated with Arrest, Bail, and Preventive Justice
• The problem associated with jurisdiction of Court
• The problems associated with prosecution
• Conflict between the Constitution and the Act
• The prospects and Key innovations

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Summary
• Observations and Findings

5.3 Recommendations

5.4. Conclusion

TABLE OF STATUTES

Administration Criminal Justice Act 2015

Administration of Criminal Justice Laws of Lagos State 2011 The Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2006,

The Constitution of Federal Republic Nigeria (CFRN) 1999 Cap C23, LFN 2004 The Constitution of Federal Republic Nigeria (CFRN) 1963

The Criminal Procedure Code

Criminal Procedure Act Cap C41 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004 Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act 2004

Evidence Act Cap E14 2011 Legal Aid Act, 2011

Legal Practitioners‟ Act 2007

Niger Delta Development Act Cap N86 LFN 2004 Penal Code

Police Act Police Act Cap P19 LFN 2004 Prison Act Prison Act Cap P29 LFN 2004

Legal Practitioners Act Cap L11 L.F.N. 2004 Terrorism Act (Terrorism (Prevention) Act No. 10, 2011 Foreign Statutes:

United Nations Charter or Charter of the United Nations 1945,

African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Also Known as the Banjul Charter) Canadian Criminal Procedure and Practice

The Constitution of the United States of America

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

ACJA Administration of Criminal Justice Act

ACJL Administration of Criminal Justice Law

AGF     Attorney General of the Federation

ANLR All Nigerian Law Report

Court of Appeal

Cap       Chapter

CBAN Canadian Bar Association National

CBN    Central Bank of Nigeria

CCC     Canadian Criminal Code

CFRN Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Classification of Instructional Programmes

CJN      Chief Justice of Nigeria

Criminal Procedure Act CPC            Criminal Procedure Code

COP     Commissioner of Police

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid

EFCC Economics and Financial Crime Commission

European Union

FRN     Federal Republic of Nigeria

IGP      Inspector General of Police

JCA      Justice Court of Appeal

JSC       Justice of Supreme Court

LFN    Laws of Federation Nigeria

LPA     Legal Practitioners Act

LPELR Law Pavilion Electronic Law Report

NBA   Nigerian Bar Association

NCES National Centre for Education Statistics

NCCMS Nigeria-Court-Case-Management-System

NDDCA Niger-Delta Development Commission Act

NIPC Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission

NWLR Nigerian Weekly Law Report

OAU Obafemi Awolowo University

PDF     Portable Document Format

PDP     Peoples‟ Democratic Party

Pt.         Part

SAN     Senior Advocate of Nigeria

SC        Supreme Court

SCNJ Supreme Court of Nigeria Judgment

SMC    Supreme Military Council

URL    Uniform Resource Locator

USA     United State of America

WA     West Africa

ABSTRACT

The recent revelation that it takes twenty two long years to conclude a case up to the Supreme Court, and between five to ten years at the state High Courts, which has made public the challenge of criminal justice administration in Nigeria is startling. Even without further query, it presupposes that the problem with the judiciary is deeply entrenched at the root of its entire structure, and beginning from the court gatemen to bailiffs, clerks, registrars, and messengers down to typists and other official who play equally very essential roles in the administration of justice. Reasons being that most times court processes are not served on parties except money exchanges hands between litigants/counsel and court official or the police and prison official who complain of lack of logistics and adequate remuneration/mobilization. This, and many others for the umpteenth time, has hindered and is still clogging the wheel of justice from grinding on full development.

The whole gamut of the Act is geared toward achieving efficiency and maintaining effective delivery in the administration of criminal justice institutions. It is not merely important that justice should be done but it is necessary that it should be manifestly and judiciously seen to be done.

Yet, in recent times, there have been lots of complaints against the institutions in charge of administration criminal justice system, in Nigeria. These problems, some of which have been traced to criminal institutions and the law itself, are congestion of courts workloads, delay in dispensation of justice, abuse of the processes and inefficiency by the practitioners and/or law enforcement personnel, delay issuance of Attorney General’s Copy of legal advice and prisons congestion. These necessitated the re-enactment of the law to possibly cure the ills complained of. Ideally the lawmakers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have a mandate to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof had to repeal the former criminal

procedures and collapse them into one, which emerged as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act in (ACJA) 2015.

The preoccupation of this research is to evaluates the entirety of the Act particularly as it concerns its innovations which effectively guarantees access to justice, rule of law, humane treatment and dignity of suspect, defendant or victim and its quest to ensure, promote and make certain the efficient management of criminal justice institutions, speedy dispensation of justice in Nigeria.

Keywords: Administration of criminal justice, access to justice, problems and prospects.

CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

•   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

It is in the open knowledge that cases, civil or criminal, take forever before they are ever concluded either at the trial or appellate courts. Notwithstanding this, there are many other incalculable twists and chances position to obstruct the steering wheel of justice administration and distribution in Nigeria. These systemic disappointments have had the fates of countless citizens hanging in the balance¹.

At least these arguments can be confirmed in the following cases of; Ariori v. Elemo² where it took twenty years for the case to reach the Supreme Court and was set de novo. In Edet Effiom v. the State,³ it took ten years while Al-Mustapha Hamzat v. The State,⁴ where the defendant/appellant was arrested on October 1998, the matter went up unto appeal in year 2013 and when it concluded at the Court of Appeal it was exactly 15 years. In recent times, the likes of Colonel Sambo Dasuki (Rtd), the former National Security Adviser (NSA) to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan led administration, alleged to have misappropriated $2.1 billion meant for procurement of firearms to prosecute the Boko Haram insurgency, arrested on 29^th December, 2015⁵ was recently released from detention. This demonstrates that the criminal justice administration in the country needs to be position in a better standing.⁹

1 Akamba J. Agbor, Problems and Prospects of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, being a long essay submitted to Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, 2016 sourced from www.academia.com on 25^th February 2020

² SC 80/1981[1983] ANLR 1

³ (1988) 12 SCNJ (PT. 1) 79

⁴ (2013) LPELR-20995(CA)

⁵ Channels Television. Updated February 26, 2016, available at www.channelstv.com

⁹ A.B. Mahmoud op. cit. p. 5

In 2015, the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration had to assent to a bill of the National Assembly²⁴ thereby passed into law the Administration of Criminal Justice Act,⁶ ACJA, 2015.⁷ In this, it is provided that the administration of criminal justice in the courts⁸ of the Federal Capital territory⁹ (FCT) and other Federal Courts¹⁰ in Nigeria¹¹; and for related matters as an improvements to complaints touching the ills and backdrops inherent in the criminal justice system. In a nutshell, the ACJA presupposes that the system is in fetters and a chain hence it aims is to deliver it through efficient management of criminal justice institutions, speedy dispensation of justice, protection of society from crime, protection of the rights and interests of the suspect, protection of the rights and interests of the defendant, protection of the rights and interests of the victim¹².

        STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

The Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 lay down the processes to be followed to punish or acquit an offender or an innocent suspect. The Nigerian Constitution provides that any person charged with a criminal offence has a right to be presumed innocent and a right of fair hearing in public within a reasonable time by a law court¹³. Yet, in recent times, there have been lots of complaints against the institutions in charge of administration criminal justice system, in Nigeria¹⁴.

⁶ ACJA commenced on the 13^th May, 2015.

⁷ The ACJA repealed all prior criminal procedure laws particularly the Criminal procedure Code (CPC) operating in Northern Nigerian and the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) and as well merged them with the Administration Justice Committee Act (AJCA) into one for the purpose of criminal justice administration in the country.

⁸ ACJA preambles

⁹ Section 2(2)(4)(5) CFRN

¹⁰ Section 6(1) CFRN

¹¹ S.2(1)(2) CFRN

12 Akamba J. Agbor op. cit.

13 Ibid

14 Ibid

These problems, some of which have been traced to criminal institutions and the law itself, are congestion of courts workloads, delay in dispensation of justice, abuse of the processes and inefficiency by the practitioners and/or law enforcement personnel, delay issuance of Attorney General’s Copy of legal advice and prisons congestion. These necessitated the re-enactment of the law to possibly cure the ills complained of. Ideally the lawmakers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have a mandate to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof had to repeal the former criminal procedures and collapse them into one, which emerged as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act in (ACJA) 2015¹⁵.

The preoccupation of this research is to evaluate the entirety of the Act particularly as it concerns its innovations which effectively guarantees access to justice, rule of law, humane treatment and dignity of suspect, defendant or victim and its quest to ensure, promote and make certain the efficient management of criminal justice institutions, speedy dispensation of justice in Nigeria. As well as its problems and future prospects. Others are the protection of the society from crime and protection of the rights and interests of the suspect, the defendant, and the victim and ensure compliance with the provisions for the realization of those purposes in the system of administration of criminal justice. This work’s high point centers majorly on the salient provisions like non- custodial sentencing such as deportations, community service, rehabilitation and correctional centers, parole, fine and others which are new to the Nigerian criminal justice system. It also explores the challenges and prospects of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and its attendant effect on the Nigerian justice system¹⁶.

1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aim of the study will be to examine some of the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act particularly as it concerns the congestion of courts with criminal cases, delay in dispensation of justice, stay of proceedings in criminal cases, remand and holding charge custody, improper charge and information before a trial court, etc. The objectives of the study are to ascertain the purpose of the law, the impact of the law on the society, the role of the law and the purpose of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act as an access to justice, rule of law and protection of human dignity¹⁷.

              SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This long essay centers mainly on the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, its effects and the attendant changes cum differences between it and penal laws that were in existence before it. It also seeks to look into the shortcoming of the Nigerian criminal justice system and prospects and indeed the way out of the loopholes inherent in the Act.

As noted on that ¹⁸this long essay is limited to the positive and negative effects of administration of criminal justice act in Nigeria, the long essay encountered some forms of setbacks in the attempt to meet a satisfactory standard in this project work.

        SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The research is very important as it seeks address some ascertain challenges bedeviling the administration criminal justice and also going forward to proffer solutions. It views in certain ways

a better practice and procedure for criminal justice delivery under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015. It discusses unidentified problems which law writers may have not addressed, with a view to proffer solutions. Hence, the study seeks to enlighten the average Nigerian on their rights, the law enforcement officer on the modalities, and the practitioners on the best practices to attain the ends of justice through the means offer by law.

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