Abiodun Medahunsi from Akungba Law Clinic: Reflection

The Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 (ACJA) is unmistakably the hottest Law in Nigeria presently and it is without doubt due to its wide applicability and revolutionary nature. The Law comes in handy for both lawyers and non-lawyers.
Stakeholders in the criminal justice system have identified nationwide application or domestication of the legislative purpose of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) as one of the act’s major challenges.
By its domestication and application across the country, it is expected that through it, a national criminal procedure law that will regulate the investigation and prosecution of offences throughout the federation would have been introduced.
It could be argued that laws in a federation need not be uniform as a result of the fiscal, social and legal diversities of the federating states, but because modern criminality, especially emerging crimes, are increasingly becoming well organised and trans-border. There is, therefore need to ensure that investigations and prosecution of criminal offences are conducted in coordinated, consistent and collaborative manner, using the same or similar standards, norms, rules, procedures and practices, as well as same range of sanctions.” With only 12 states and the FCT so far implementing ACJA or the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) as the law guiding their criminal procedure, there is need to encourage consistency in the provisions of the laws
There are a number of provisions in ACJA and various ACJL that are divergent. For example, while Section 15(4) of ACJA provided that confessions may be recorded electronically in video, similar provisions in some states such as Lagos, Anambra, Enugu and Ekiti make it mandatory. However a recent Court of Appeal order has held that the “may” in that section of ACJA should be read as “shall”.
Another major challenge of ACJA was that despite its passage since May 15 2015, most of its provisions are not yet implemented, and most people within and outside the law community are not even aware of its provisions.
Lack of data or statistics is another challenge identified.  Section 16 of ACJA provides for setting up the Central Criminal Record Registry, and also requires officers in charge of police stations or police commands to transmit to the central registry the relevant information on arrested suspects and whether or not they are charged to court.
CONCLUSION
  By and large, the provisions of the Act are geared towards curing most of the anomalies and lacuna in the existing criminal laws. But as we all know, in Nigeria, the problem is always not with the law but with the implementation of the law. This new law is very progressive, timely and in conformity with international best practices and we sincerely hope that it will be well implemented to give life to the dream justice system that the legislators have in mind for Nigeria.

Abiodun Medahunsi.
400level. Akungba Law Clinic.