Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Mukhtar on Monday in Abuja, took a
swipe at security agencies in the country for their unprofessional
operations.
She decried instances where suspects are taken to court without little or no evidence to prosecute them.
Justice Mukhtar described the situation as one of the reasons for
undue delays in the criminal justice administration system in the
country.
Speaking at a special session of the Supreme Court to mark the
commencement of the 2013/2014 Legal Year, as well as the inauguration of
17 new Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Mukhtar lamented the “unwholesome
practice of some security agents involved in criminal justice
administration system,” particularly the arraignment of suspects without
first gathering evidence for prosecution.
“It is common knowledge that our security agencies usually rush to
the courts with suspects, before looking for evidence to prosecute them.
“The persistent use of the ‘Holden Charge’ by these agencies to
detain awaiting trial suspects, is a major contributor to the high
number of cases pending in our courts,” she said.
Continuing, she noted that the procedure is a far cry from what
obtains in other democracies, “where discrete surveillance is placed on
crime suspects who are painstakingly stalked by security agents, until
such a time when enough evidence would have been obtained for their
arrest, arraignment and prosecution.”
“But in Nigeria, suspects are promptly arrested and often times
arraigned in court, even when no evidence for prosecution has been
gathered.
“The backlash from such failure of proper investigation by our
security agencies is the resultant hike in the number of cases pending
in the courts.”
The CJN warned that “an extreme consequence of these glaring lapses
may lie in the loss of confidence in our domestic justice administration
system which rubbishes our often brandished favourable investment
climate and translate to a huge disincentive to potential foreign
investors in Nigeria.”
She restated her call for an overhaul of the country’s criminal laws,
which she described as “archaic and culturally irrelevant.”
The CJN further expressed concerns at the slow pace of administration of justice in the country.
“To exhaust complete remedy in a case, that is from trial court to
Supreme Court, could take up to 20 years with the original litigants
dead and substituted and in some cases the substitutes also dead and
substituted,” she said.
Justice Mukhtar also spoke on the challenges militating against her
resolve to restore the fading glory of the country’s judiciary.
She stressed that, for her to achieve the objective, “certain indices
have to be guaranteed; for instance government must at all times ensure
total compliance with the rule of law as well as adherence to the
principle of separation of powers.”
