NBA urges 28 states to domesticate ACJA to fast track criminal justice
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has urged 28 states government that are yet to adopt and domesticate the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 to do so to allow for a uniform administration of criminal justice system in the country.
The NBA President, Mr Abubakar Mahmud (SAN), stated this on Thursday at the ACJA conference in Abuja.
He added that the association offered to provide advocacy and technical support to the state with a view to guiding them to domestication, adoption or modifications of the act to suit their peculiarities.
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He also said the NBA will engage in provision of continuing legal education to stakeholders.
According to him, this will be deployed in partnership with Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS).
He said the project will be implemented in three phases for positive effect.
He said, “The NBA envisages that the project will be implemented in three phases over a period of thirty-six (36) months in twenty (28) states, which are yet to domesticate the ACJA legislation.
“The 28 states will be divided into 3 groups which will be spread across the years 2017, 2018, 2019. The states that will be selected for each year and phase will reflect all the six (6) geo-political zones of Nigeria”.
Mahmud said in order to ensure efficient and effective achievement of the intended results, the NBA’s strategy is to create some administrative structures which will include, Project Management Team, State Committee and NBA Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE).
He said the NBA will leverage on information and communication technology, ICT, in driving the project.
“We propose to launch an Administration of Criminal Justice Website which shall serve as the information hub and the go-to site for information regarding criminal justice administration in Nigeria. We shall also design a portal for online delivery of continuing legal education training”, Mahmud said.
He said the NBA believes that within the context of our federal system, it is possible to promote alignment of objectives of our laws and legal principles, synergy of our institutions and acceptance of efficient institutional processes based on national and indeed internationally accepted standards.
The NBA boss said, “As at now, 8 States have adopted and passed the Administration of Criminal Justice. A few others are in the process and at various stages of passing the legislation. In effect, 28 states have not. It was in this context that the NBA approached the MacArthur Foundation with a project proposal to support criminal justice reforms in Nigeria and in particular to support the adoption and implementation of the ACJA”
