SAN,
of Justice
FG Begins
Uniformity in Custodian Sentences
The Honourable
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr.
Abubakar Malami, SAN, has said that the proposed consolidated
sentencing guidelines will ensure reasonable uniformity and
fairness in the imposition of Custodial and Non-custodial
Sentences.
He stated this in the
Keynote address at the Virtual Interactive session of the
Presidential Committee on Correctional Service Reform and
Decongestion with relevant Justice Sector stakeholders to review
the Draft Federal Capital Territory Courts Sentencing Guidelines
and Practice Direction,2020 on Monday August 17th, 2020
in Abuja.
According to him,” the
new guideline is to set out the requirements and procedure for
imposing custodial and non-custodial sentences for the purpose of
preventing abuse and ensuring reasonable uniformity and fairness in
the imposition of sentences”.
He emphasised that, “if
Judges must not exceed the term prescribed in the statute creating
an offence or exceed the quantum prescribed in punishing the
offender, there must be a Sentencing Guideline. For us to avoid
disparity in sentencing from one judicial officer to the other,
then there must be a uniform guideline……”.
He noted that the
Guideline would also ensure that congestion in prisons is reduced
to the barest minimum through the use of non-custodial sentences,
in line with section 470(2)(c) of the Administration of Criminal
Justice Act, ACJA’, 2015 and section 2(1)(b) of the Nigerian
Correctional Service Act, 2019.
The AGF said the Federal Capital Courts Sentencing Guidelines is
geared towards implementing one of the major recommendations of the
National Workshop on the Effective Implementation of the Nigerian
Correctional Service Act, 2019 held in November, 2019 in
Abuja.
The proposed Consolidate Sentencing Guidelines will
also set out the appropriate standards and guideline for
the sentencing process in offences against the state, person,
public order, morality, homicide, property and corruption related
offences, for the purpose of ensuring reasonable uniformity and
fairness in sentencing in the Federal Capital Territory; set out
the requirements and procedure for imposing
Malami said, ”This interactive session has therefore brought
together relevant stakeholders especially the FCT Judiciary to
review, ratify, validate and adopt the consolidated draft document
which will hopefully be signed in no distant time by my Lord, the
Chief Judge of the FCT High Court.
”It is expected that this pilot document will be extended to other
States of the Federation, especially those States that have enacted
the Administration of Criminal Justice Law. The administration of
our criminal justice system is an embodiment of diverse
institutions respectively engaged in the detection, prosecution and
adjudication over offenders culminating to conviction and
sentencing”.
The Chairman of the Presidential Committee, Justice Ishaq Bello,
who is also the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court in his welcome
address said the introduction of non-custodial sentences such as
probation, community service, restitution, compensation and
suspended sentence by the Administration of Criminal Justice Act,
2015 was one of the main innovations of the new Act which was aimed
at addressing the problem of congestion of correctional facilities
in Nigeria.
He however noted that the existing Federal Capital Territory Courts
(Sentencing Guidelines) Practice Direction, 2016 did not make
adequate provision for non – custodial measures which necessitated
a review to address the existing gaps, relating to non-custodial
sentencing and to ensure fairness, consistency and uniformity in
imposition of both custodial and non-custodial sentences.
He said subsequent review of the FCT Courts Sentencing Guidelines
Practice Direction, 2016, following the enactment of the Nigerian
Correctional Service Act, 2019 revealed that there is inadequate
provisions on the circumstances when non-custodial sentence can or
cannot be imposed;
He added that there is also ambiguity as to whether the discretion
on non-custodial sentence should be confined to the provisions of
the ACJA and the Sentencing guidelines;
In his closing remark, the Solicitor General of the Federation and
Permanent Secretary, Mr. Dayo Apata, SAN, thanked the Justice
Sector Stakeholders and Experts for their participation and
contributions, especially the Chief Judge of Lagos State,
Honourable Justice Kazeem O. Alogba, who shared the Lagos state
experiences, challenges and lessons in the Administration of
Criminal Justice.
He expressed gratitude to the HAGF and the United Nations, Office
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), for their
consistent support towards the success of the Justice Sector Reform
programs of the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The Senior Human Rights
Adviser to United Nation Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Dr.
Martine Ejidike in his goodwill message said, the act was not a
self-implemented as it requires several processes for proper
report.
According to him,
the sentencing guidelines are one of the important things that must
not be done without. He emphasised that, without effective
sentencing implementation process, the Act will not work. He
therefore urged the Justice Sector to consider the sentencing
guidelines and never loss side of the main objectives of the
adoption in Justice Sector.
The Secretary of the Committee, Mrs. Leticia Ayoola-Daniels,
speaking with the Media, expressed satisfaction with the success of
the event and hoped that the Committee will continue to enjoy the
support of relevant Justice Sector Stakeholders in the delivery of
its Mandate to fast track the decongestion of Custodial centres via
the deployment of selected crucial measures.
Modupe
Ogundoro
Deputy Director
17th August, 2020