Legal practitioners and judiciary officials, among other stakeholders working around the Administration of Criminal Justice Laws (ACJL) in Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria, have cautioned security operatives in the state against unlawful arrest of suspects.
The stakeholders, who said this in their various remarks at a capacity-building workshop on the Oyo State Administration of Criminal Justice Laws (ACJL), noted that the practice accounts for the increase in the number of inmates across various correctional centres in the state.
The workshop, themed “Popularising and Disseminating the Administration of Criminal Justice Laws (ACJLS) of States and Continuously Updating the Laws to Reflect Amendments,” was organised by The Law Hub Development and Advocacy Centre, Abuja, with support from the MacArthur Foundation, and held at the Aare Afe Babalola Bar Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan.
In his paper, “An Overview and Innovation Provisions of the Oyo State Administration of Criminal Justice Law: Strategies for Speedy Implementation,“ the Principal Partner, Adekola Kareem and Co. Mr Adekola Kareem identified unlawful arrest as one of the major problems of the state criminal process and one of the reasons police stations and prisons are overcrowded.
Kareem said: “Arrests are sometimes made on allegations that are purely civil or on frivolous grounds. According to Section 10(1) of the CPA, 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. This particular provision has been greatly abused by the police, who use it as a ground to arrest people indiscriminately. The ACJL has deleted this provision.”
He lamented that there were several instances where the police and other agencies vested with power of arrest, such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), etc., had arrested relatives, friends, or close associates of a crime suspect to compel the suspect to give himself up, even though such persons were not linked in any way to the crime alleged against the suspect.
He noted that Section 9 of the ACJL specifically prohibits arrest in lieu, saying the section provides thus: “A person shall not be arrested in place of another person suspected to have committed an offence,” and that Section 9 should curtail such kinds of abuses.
The Comptroller of Oyo State Correctional Services, Comptroller Abdulraheem Salami, had, a day earlier, urged stakeholders to help ensure swift dispensation of justice so the cells, both at the Agodi Prison in Ibadan and Abolongo Prison in Oyo Town, would be decongested to avoid health challenges in the facilities.
In an overview of the Oyo State Administration of Criminal Justice Rules, the Deputy Court Registrar, High Court, Oyo State, Mr. Idowu Emmanuel, explained that the provisions of the ACJL would rationalise the concept of trial if fully implemented, noting that the ACJL is novel and good legislation if fully made use of by all stakeholders.
Emmanuel stated: “The judiciary too must organise workshops from time to time for our magistrates and judges. The provision of the administration of criminal justice rules in 2022 is not much resorted to. The procedure of case management should be encouraged to be seen as a matter of compulsion to be used before the commencement of the trial. The duty disclosed should be enforced against the prosecuting agencies to speed up the trial.”
He also appealed that sufficient funds should be released to assist the judiciary in activities commencing with trial.
