Lawyer Wants New Criminal Justice Law Abolished

A lawyer based in Abuja, Dr A.C.B. Agbazuere”Ž, has asked a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, to quash section 165(2) of the new Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.The section under dispute states, “That a court may require the deposit of a sum of money or other security as the court may specify from the defendant or his surety before bail is approved.”Specifically, the lawyer is confronting the legality of that aspect of the law, insisting that applying same would result into gross violation of section 36(5) of the 1999 constitution, as amended.Agbazuere also insisted that the said section has only succeeded in making it difficult for Nigerians facing minor criminal charges to be granted bail by courts.Joined as defendants in the action designated FHC/ABJ/CS/889/2015 are the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, and the National Assembly.In the said suit, the lawyer stated that, “If section 165(2) of the ACJA, is allowed to exist, its application will entail that a Nigerian citizen who has no money or other security will be deprived of his right to bail and will not have his bail approved and will therefore be sent to prison until he/she pays the money when he/she is yet to be tried for the offence.“The law is settled that the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is supreme and if any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail and that other law shall to the extent of its inconsistency be void by virtue of section 1(1) and (3) of the constitution.“That applicability of section 165(2) of the Administration of Criminal Act, 2015 will deprive Nigerian citizens of their liberty, freedom and fair hearing.“My Lord, I submit that in our laws, presumption of innocence is so sacrosanct that the burden of rebuttal or the burden to discharge presumption of innocence at any time demands that the prosecution would have established or proved the essential ingredients of offence and the accused person is unable to bring himself within the defences of exceptions allowed under the law generally.“With section 165(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, the accused is to pay money before his bail can be approved when the prosecution has neither proved the essential ingredients of the case not has the accused been found guilty.“By providing for the mandatory payment of money before bail is approved, section 165(2) of the Act has now presumed every person guilty when he has not been tried and found guilty. It is an aberration and ambush against the people and should not be allowed to stand.“At a time when the level of poverty in Nigeria is so alarming that the President has declared that Nigeria is broke and states cannot pay salaries to workers except with the aid of bailout funds (which are also loans), any legislation imposing payment of money on Nigerian citizens before their bail is approved is not only inconsistent with the intendment of section 36 (5) of the constitution but also a bad law as it is anti-people.“Section 165(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 shall lead to and is already causing arbitrarily detention and deprivation of the liberty and freedom of Nigerians, as their bail shall not and is not being approved until they deposit money, when they are still deemed innocent by our laws.”