Senate empowers FCT customary courts to try criminal matters

The jurisdiction of the Federal Capital Territory Customary Court will soon be expanded to include the trial of criminal matters as a bill to that effect passed second reading yesterday in the Senate.

Sponsored by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central) the bill seeks to amend the Federal Capital Territory Customary Court Act 2007 to alter the quorum of the court for the purpose of ensuring timely dispensation of justice and expand the jurisdiction of the court to include the trial of criminal matters.

After the second reading of the bill, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Judiciary which is expected to report back in four weeks.

Lawan said that “the Senate Committee on Judiciary has a concordance of lawyers and only one or two members are not lawyers. I think something as serious as this will definitely be interesting to our committee on judiciary, but probably more interesting to the practitioners out there.”

Before then, senators that contributed to the debate took a critical look at the intent and workability of the bill, especially as if concerns court officials.

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Senate Deputy Chief Whip, Sen. Sabi Abdullahi (Niger East) said that “I have a concern to raise seeing the merits of the bill. If we saddle one person with the responsibility of dispensing justice, will there be justice? This is my only concern.”

Aligning himself with the comments of Senator Aliyu, the Minority Leader, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) said that “usually those appointed to head customary courts sometimes do not have legal training.

“I do not know whether the sponsor of the bill made provisions to make sure legally trained individuals are appointed as customary court judges.

“I think there are several other ways you can use to reduce the backlog by appointing more magistrates. I suggest that we may need to take another look at this bill and make sure all these areas are treated.

Opeyemi had in his presentation stated that he was persuaded by the compelling need to reduce the quorum of the court from three members to one in order to avoid unnecessary postponement of trials.

According to him, the expansion of the court’s jurisdiction to include criminal trials, as proposed in the bill is also in tandem with trends in the jurisdiction of customary courts in many parts of the country.

“It should be emphasized that customary courts in other parts of the country are now contributing immensely to criminal justice administration. For instance, Section 3 of the Logos state Customary Court Law recognizes the limited criminal jurisdiction of the Logos state Customary Court.

“Also, customary courts have been vested with criminal jurisdiction in Akwa -Ibom state and many others. To bring the FCT Customary Court at par with the customary courts in other ports of the country, this bill prescribes the criminal jurisdiction of the court in Part II of the schedule to the bill by specifying offences and punishments cognizable by the court,” the senator added.

The bill proposes amendments to Sections 2. 14. 43, 49 and 50 of the principal Act and also proposes to amend Part II of the schedule to the principal Act to specify categories of offences, and terms of imprisonment or fines that can be imposed by the court in exercise of its proposed criminal jurisdiction.

If the bill is passed, offences that attract maximum prison term of seven years or maximum fine of N500, 000 or both will now be tried by the FCT Customary Courts without prejudice to the jurisdiction of magistrate courts in the FCT.