The Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Aisha Dikko, has said that the Kaduna State Administration of Criminal Justice Law was enacted to promote efficient management of criminal justice institutions and speedy dispensation of justice.
The commissioner, who spoke at a one-day seminar/retreat on the “Kaduna State Administration of Criminal Justice Law Monitoring Committee: The journey thus far,” also said the law seeks to protect the society from crime as well as protect the rights of suspects, defendants and victims.
Dikko also highlighted what the Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee and Ministry of Justice have been doing to ensure compliance with the Kaduna State Administration of Criminal Justice Law.
She reiterated that the ministry and the committee’s commitment to the implementation of “certain schemes, rules and guides geared towards the achievement of an efficient criminal justice system, administered with a three-way justice traffic in mind.”
Dikko disclosed that the committee, in collaboration with the ministry and in consultation with the judiciary, have “instituted a plea bargain committee with a manual to guide parties seeking to explore this in settlement of criminal issues.”
The Attorney General argued that plea bargain is “necessitated by the need to conclude criminal proceedings in little or no time with all parties, that is the state, the victim and the defendant all going home as winners, having been able to come to a consensus.”
“This in turn saves the time of the court, decongests its docket and decongests the custodial centres, thus saving taxpayers monies and saves the state the time and cost of prosecution, while giving the victim an almost certain compensation and the defendant the opportunity to purge his or herself of an offence,” she added.
The commissioner also said that the committee and the ministry have fashioned out a sentencing guideline which “is aimed at aiding the court in deciding appropriate sentences to pass on defendants on the conclusion of criminal proceedings.
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Dikko further disclosed that the ministry and the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee have sent a team to Ogun State to study its bondsman scheme to “bridge the gap of granting bail in simple and bailable offences and associated abscondment of defendants.”
According to her, the District Prosecutors Scheme is one of the innovations that will speed up the administration of justice “with counsel of the Ministry of Justice stationed in strategic magisterial divisions to go through First Information Report (FIR) before they are mentioned.”
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