Mr Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation
(AGF) and Minister of Justice (SAN) says the Federal Government is determined
to decongesting prisons across the country within the next two years.
Malami said this on Tuesday in Abuja when briefing newsmen...
He said the measure was part of the efforts to revitalize
the Ministry of Justice in enhancing efficiency and improved services in line
with government’s justice sector reforms.
The minister said the government was considering plans to
create a central coordinating unit in the ministry for effective coordination
of all federal criminal cases within the country.
“In accordance with the approval and mandate of the Federal
Executive Council (FEC) at its 19th meeting, the Ministry of Justice in
collaboration with other stakeholders will undertake prison reforms and
decongestion.’’
He said the strategies would involve the installation and
implementation of a state of the art modern Virtual Automated Case Management
System (V-ACMS) to assist the ministry with necessary information on prison
inmates.
“We are looking at a two-year time frame but then among the
multiple modalities that are put in place, as rightly stated is the automated
electronic system.
“The way we intend the electronic system to be deployed is
that we will have online connections to be manned by the trained staff in every
prison location.
“These staff will key in information which will
automatically be transmitted to the office of the Attorney-General, the office
of the Inspector General and the heads of courts.“This is to ensure monitoring of activities in the prison
system on a daily basis.
“For example, on a daily basis, the Chief Judge of the
Federal High Court will be able to monitor who is due to be taken to court,
which court and at what time.’’
According to him, from the system, the AGF will be able to
monitor who is brought into the prison, when the person is brought and the offense he is charged with.
“So this will assist us in policy formulation and data
gathering for the purpose of ensuring that people are taking to court as and
when due and necessary investigation is conducted.”
According to him, the establishment of the central
coordinating unit is expected to tackle the issue of lack of effective
cooperation and collaboration among the stakeholders involved in criminal
justice.The minister said that the unit would enable the office of
the AGF to have first hand information on the status of all criminal
investigations and trials in the country.
“It will also enable the office of the AGF to checkmate
abuse and proliferation of criminal cases in the country.
“It will also enable easy access to information for a robust
and effective criminal justice system in Nigeria.”
He decried the lack of legal expertise in the conduct and
process of investigations by the various security agencies.
The minister said that this often resulted in the consistent
rejection of vital evidence in the course of prosecution.
To address this, the minister said that an investigation
unit would be created within the ministry to coordinate all prosecution cases
of the government.
“The core mandate of the investigation unit shall consist of
the following: “To before hand, advice every security agency carrying out
investigation on the best lawful and admissible means of such investigation for
effective prosecution thereafter.
“And to actively form part of every sensitive and important
investigation, as a synergy to successful investigation and prosecution of such
cases.
“To ensure that every evidence obtained maintain the nature,
value and form admissible in law court and to ensure that every investigation
is comprehensively and conclusively conducted.’’
The AGF said the judgment debt profile of the ministry as at
2016 was N113 billion and this informed the setting up of a committee to evolve
modalities to reduce the debt.
He said that the committee was expected to find ways of
reaching a compromise with the judgment creditors on modalities and payment of
such debts.
He, however, noted that the ministry, through the Department
of Civil Litigation, saved the sum of N119 billion for the Federal Government.
The amount according to him was monies claimed as damages
for loss incurred or suffered by various parties who initiated suits against
the Federal Government.
The minister said four judges had been assigned to
expeditiously handle and dispense of, cases of persons detained for long period
on allegation of belonging to the Boko Haram sect.
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