‘Special courts for graft can’t solve criminal justice problems’

Special courts for corruption cases can’t tackle myriad of problems associated with criminal justice system in the country, legal experts said over the weekend.  They were examining the announcement by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, to set up special courts to handle corruption cases in Nigeria and anchored on the need […]

Special courts for corruption cases can’t tackle myriad of problems associated with criminal justice system in the country, legal experts said over the weekend. 

They were examining the announcement by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, to set up special courts to handle corruption cases in Nigeria and anchored on the need for a comprehensive fast track approach to all criminal cases, not just those bordering on corruption.

The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Abubakar Mahmud (SAN) commended the CJN for the reforms, hoping that he will implement them to the latter for the benefit of the justice sector.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) commended the CJN for “intervening in a decisive manner” in the efforts to establish a special court clothed with exclusive jurisdiction to try corruption cases.

He suggested that to make a success of it the directives to heads of courts should be put to use as they are designed to give priority to the trial and appeals arising from cases of corruption, money laundering, terrorism, rape, kidnapping and human trafficking.

These are: The chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, the Chief Judges of the states and the Federal Capital Territory should be directed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria to issue practice directions to accelerate the determination of corruption cases. In addition, the Supreme Court (Criminal Appeals) Practice Directions 2013; Court of Appeal (Criminal Appeals) Practice Directions 2013 and Court of Appeal (Fast Track) Practice Directions 2014 as well as the Federal High Court Practice Directions 2013.

“Even though the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of Section 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act with respect to the abolition of stay of proceedings in criminal trials in all federal courts,” he said.

“Some defence counsel have devised new dilatory tactics including the practice of subjecting each prosecution witness to cross examination lasting for 20 days or more by asking irrelevant questions and sending junior lawyers to court to ask for adjournment to allow senior counsel in chambers to personally handle the cross examination of prosecution witnesses,” he added.

Also reacting, constitutional lawyer and executive director, Human Rights Monitor, Festus Okoye, submitted that since the courts have no constitutional powers to create courts or records being the function of the National Assembly, what the directive implies is to designate specific courts to corruption cases.

He, however criticized the policy as pandering to the ideological thrust and direction of the government in power or out of power, stressing that the “judiciary must therefore remain above the political fray and adjudicate matters assigned to them fairly and with a sense of justice.”

“Moreover, Nigeria cannot create and or designate courts for every conceivable national challenge. Insurgency, kidnapping, armed robbery, militant agitation, hate speech, religious and ethnic fundamentalism are all germane issues in Nigeria and we cannot create special courts for all of them,” he said.

Speaking in the same vein, political activist and founder of the Egalitarian Mission Africa, Kayode Ajulo, called for solution to speedy dispensation of all criminal matters such as murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, among others. He maintained that “crime is crime all over the world and corruption is a bye-product of crime.”

“I am not saying we should not set up courts for corruption, but anything that has to do with crime should be pursued expeditiously,” he said. 

On the other hand, Prof Nnamdi Aduba of the Faculty of Law, University of Jos called for amendment of the criminal procedure laws to turn the burden of proof to the defendant rather than the state or the prosecution. He argued that setting up special courts to handle corruption cases will not expedite corruption cases because Nigerian institutions are weak and the prosecution is not adequately equipped with skills and technology to do the work.

“Even the judges are not well paid. So, when somebody has looted so much amount of money they can even twist the case,” he said.  

However, the spokesperson of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), stated that the clamour for the establishment of special courts to try corruption cases has been on for some time. He noted that the Executive Bill for the creation of the courts is still at the National Assembly for over one year.

He commended the CJN for “magnanimously taking the bold initiative to designate the special courts to try corruption and financial crimes cases.”

Following calls for fast track trial of corruption cases, which is the cardinal objective of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the CJN on Monday announced the modalities for the implementation of the new policy, which will be ratified by the National Judicial Council (NJC). Some of the details of the reform are as follows: the CJN directed all heads of courts to compile and forward lists of corruption and financial crimes cases in their courts.

The CJN directed them to designate one or two courts in their jurisdiction as special courts for the hearing and speedy determination of corruption and financial crimes cases, and to comply with the extant practice directions.

What this means is not that new courts of records will be established, but to deepen the practice in some jurisdictions like Lagos and FCT where there are judges with speciality in certain areas of law, will now have a preponderance of cases relating to those areas assigned to them to fully concentrate on. This will detach them from other matters.

The CJN also directed all heads of courts to clamp down on lawyers who deploy delay tactics in criminal matters before them and reiterated the pegging of appearances for a party to five.

He announced plans to embrace technology such as: electronic filing systems and courtroom technologies such as digital court reporting, telephone and video-conferencing, document transmission, hearing loops, real time transcripts, desktop mirroring, and multimedia evidence playback.

The CJN said the reforms, which will be rolled out at the next NJC meeting and suggested that he will put together stakeholder groups to review the reports of the various committees as well as proposals for the reform of the Judiciary received from well-meaning members of the profession, including the Nigerian Bar Association.

For the efforts of the justices, he describing Nigerian Supreme Court justices as the hardest working in the world considering the number of cases attended to in the outgoing year.

“In the course of the 2016/2017 legal year, the Supreme Court considered a total number of 1,362 matters comprising motions, appeals and judgements. Under motions, we heard 82 political, 675 civil and 208 criminal motions, totaling 965; the Court also considered a total number of 394 appeals comprising 96 political, 174 civil, and 124 criminals,” he said.

“In total, 243 judgments were delivered in the 2016/2017 legal year. This is by all means an impressive report considering the persistent and increasing volume of cases that continue to come before this court.