The Benue State new Administration of Criminal Justice Law, (ACJL) has introduced liberalisation of bail conditions in the state where a woman can now take a defendant on bail.
This is happening for the first time since the creation of Benue State in 1976.
The Chief Judge of Benue State, Justice Aondover Kaka’an disclosed this on Thursday in Makurdi in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of a two-day seminar organized by Benue State Judiciary in collaboration with the state Ministry of Justice.
The theme of the seminar is “Understanding the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Benue State”.
Justice Kaka’an said before the advent of the new law, criminal litigation was burdened by unnecessary delays occasioned by unwarranted and frivolous applications by counsel, with the inevitable denial of justice to deserving parties.
He explained that the ACJL is fashioned after the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, (ACJA) with some modifications and is composed of 495 sections segmented into 50 parts, repealing the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and making it the extant criminal procedural law in the state.
Naming the modifications to the new law, the Chief Justice mentioned the “issue of liberalisation of bail conditions and the fact that a woman can now take a defendant on bail; payment of fees to witnesses, trial of corporations, payment of compensation to victims of crime among several others.
“In all these, the courts play a big role and the success of this law depends on how they appreciate and apply it,” Kakaan said.
He also said under the new law hostage or blanket arrests are now prohibited adding that relations of suspects could no longer be arrested in their place.
According to him, the Police under repealed CPC assumed powers that were beyond their appropriate jurisdiction as they operated as if they were not answerable to anyone saying the ACJL has largely curtailed these excesses.
“Equally important is the duty on the Police to render a periodic or monthly report of all persons arrested without warrant to the nearest magistrate who must in turn forward such report to the Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee which must analyse the report and advice the Attorney-General of Benue State.”
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The CJ further disclosed that under the law, the Police or any other prosecuting authority who are not lawyers have lost their prosecutorial powers adding that they can only bring information or charges to court.
According to the CJ, the law also re-introduced existing sentencing options such as death sentence (which can now be by hanging or lethal injection) imprisonment, and fines found in the repealed CPC.
He said the law added sentencing options such as suspended sentence, community service, detention in a suitable custody, other than prison or mental home, and other options aimed at decongesting the prisons and saving the time of the court.
“Conspicuously missing from the sentences is canning which was provided for by section 68 of the Penal Code Law and Sections 308-310 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
He, therefore, expressed hope that the seminar will provide the illumination for a better appreciation of what the law entails.
Declaring the seminar open, Governor Samuel Ortom said justice was a healing process and needed to be administered on time not only for the victim but the society at large.
The Governor said the law has opened a new chapter for the state justice system as it underscored Govenment’s commitment to the rule of law in the state.
He explained that there was every need to repeal the old law because criminals had found new ways of operation and the state could not afford to continue relying on laws established over 45 years ago for their prosecutions.
