Foundation wants special budget for criminal justice, law amendments

CLEEN Foundation has called for a holistic review and possible amendment of some flawed sections of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA). The Executive Director of the foundation, Dr. Benson Olugbuo, made the call in a policy brief on the implementation of the ACJA in Abuja last week. He also called for a structured […]

CLEEN Foundation has called for a holistic review and possible amendment of some flawed sections of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).

The Executive Director of the foundation, Dr. Benson Olugbuo, made the call in a policy brief on the implementation of the ACJA in Abuja last week.

He also called for a structured standalone budget that is not included in the budget for the Judiciary, to enhance its autonomy.

The brief is part of training on the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee on the Uwais online platform for digitization of court cases on corruption.

According to him, the project, titled ‘Promoting Transparency and Accountability in the Administration of Criminal Justice System’, also monitors cases of corruption vis-a-vis compliance to the provisions of the ACJA Act and documents these on a web-based platform.

“The goal of this intervention is to make court information (rulings/judgments) on corruption and accountability easily accessible (online and offline) to legal practitioners, law enforcement agencies, judges, prosecutors, defendants, government agencies responsible for the administration of criminal justice and CSOs working for justice sector reforms, legal scholars and researchers,” Olugbuo said.

He said the project is being implemented in eight focal states in Nigeria: FCT, Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, Anambra, Enugu and Kaduna.

He said given the several innovations introduced by the Act which requires continuous monitoring both at the state and federal levels, the ACJMC is responsible for driving advocacy for the effective implementation of the Act.

Also contained in the recommendations are, “Chief Judges of states that have successfully adopted the law should create practice directions or rules of court to guide the smooth implementation of the Act in the state; Nigeria Police stations need to be adequately equipped for the effectiveness of operationalization of the ACJ Act.”