Stakeholders in Nigeria are meeting in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital to find effective alternatives to imprisonment for offenders through Non-Custodial Measures.
The stakeholders from Federal Ministry of Justice, Judicial officers and officials from Correctional Service among others are exchanging ideas at a two-day workshop on the implementation of the Non-Custodial Measures and Sentencing Guidelines under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.
According to Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi, sentencing is a core judicial function in criminal justice.
In discharging that function, he added that “the sentencing Judge must strive to achieve the right balance between imposing a merited sentence in the case at hand, while maintaining a broad level of consistency with other cases so that sentencing at a systematic level is fair.”
Fagbemi, represented by Director, Administration of Criminal justice and Reform Department, Mrs. Leticia Ayoola-Daniels explained that, sentencing guidelines and frameworks are best understood as means to enable the sentencing court to strike the balance.
He reminded the gathering that Nigeria has enacted the Administration of Criminal Justice Act which came into force on May 13, 2015.
“The Act placed premium on non-custodial sentences. In line with ACJA 2015, the Federal Government has set out guidelines to stipulate the requirements and procedure for imposing non-custodial sentencing for the purpose of preventing abuse and ensuring reasonable uniformity and fairness in the imposition of sentences.”
Fagbemi believes that, to facilitate the application and effective use of the non-custodial sentencing, the legal and regulatory framework must be effectively implemented.
“The purpose of non-custodial measures is to find effective alternatives to imprisonment for offenders. This is in accordance with the current global shift in punishing convicts with alternatives to prison terms.”
He said, the aim of the trend is to give the judges and magistrates much latitude and discretion to award befitting and purposeful punishment to convicts aside the punishment suggested by the statute creating the offence.
Fagbemi noted that, the coming into effect of the Practice Direction in 2020, makes the sentencing landscape to develop rapidly and extensively.
“The courts have handed down many more sentencing frameworks to guide the exercise of sentencing discretion in a broadly consistent way. It is my believe that this Workshop would provide a timely opportunity for us to reflect on recent developments, so that we can look to what might lie ahead of us in the context of sentencing in our courts.”
“It is our hope that the Non-custodial measures and sentencing guidelines will be more operational and effectively implemented in order to achieve the objectives and purposes of the reforms in the criminal sector.”
Fagbemi reiterated commitment of the Ministry of Justice as the leading stakeholder in the Justice Administration in Nigeria in sustaining the development of appropriate frameworks and measures to overcome the unique challenges in the Criminal Justice sector and strengthen the application of law in line with International best practices.
