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Godwin Otang – Calabar
Stakeholders and experts in the Nigeria justice system have censured the approaches of the Nigeria Police and lawyers over the sabotage of the administration of criminal justice system in Nigeria which is responsible for the present congestion in the Nigeria Correctional Centres nationwide.
The observations were made in Calabar, Cross River, where stakeholders from the Justice sector, Correctional Service, Civic Society Organisations, the Police and other security agencies converged to chart the way forward on Criminal Justice Administration.
However, the police as the foremost law enforcement Agency in Nigeria has largely suffered blames for the backdrops in the administration of Criminal Justice in the country, especially when it comes to arrests and persecution of suspects.
Addressing stakeholders, Mr Gad Peter, the Executive Director of CLEEN Foundation, and facilitator of the stakeholder engagement, regretted that Section 10(1) of the repealed Criminal Procedure Act is terribly violated in the country.
“As you already know, the Act has reformed the process of arrest. Under section 10(1) of the repealed Criminal Procedure Act, the police could arrest without a warrant, any person who has no ostensible means of sustenance and who cannot give a satisfactory account of himself. Given its vagueness, it is not Surprising that this particular provision became an instrument of great abuse as ground to arrest people indiscriminately,” he explained.
He, however, expressed confidence that, “I am quite confident that this intervention by CLEEN Foundation will contribute robustly towards strengthening and enhancing the accountability of Justice Sector Actors to execute their mandate in a professional, transparent manner than before, to rid the focal states and Nigeria off judicial enabled corruption.
“We urge everyone to fully support this project by constantly reporting compliance gap with ACJA provisions.”
On her part, Anne Ago, a lecturer of Law from the University of Calabar, explained that, the Nigeria Police are sabotaging the ACJ system due to “inability to or lack of professional practices towards evidence collection, processing and presentation”.
She said; “evidence are very important in the administration of criminal justice, hence should be taken seriously”.
According to Anne, majority of suspects remanded in correctional facilities aren’t supposed to be there, if not for the compliance gap in the administration of criminal Justice.
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