Judiciary
A rights activist and lawyer, Mr Anthony Makolo, on Thursday in Lagos, highlighted some measures to enhance criminal justice administration in the 2022/23 Legal Year.
Makolo, Founder of Makolo Anthony Empowerment Foundation, which provides free legal aid to crime suspects, made the recommendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
He said that the measures would also facilitate decongestion of correctional centres.
According to the lawyer, the first measure would be ‘filtering’ from police stations, cases qualified to proceed to court.
“The police are not expected to make criminal charges on every matter reported at the stations.
“Although Lagos State Ministry of Justice has put in place measures aimed at reducing prison congestion, by assigning officers from the DPP to courts, with a duty of reviewing matters therein, more should be done in this regards,” he said.
Makolo said that there was the need to empower the officers to direct that flimsy charges by police should be returned.
He also suggested that a mediation centre should be set up at every police station, adding that matters brought to police stations should be first referred there for possible mediation.
“If this is done, it will serve to ensure that misdemeanors are resolved by way of alternative dispute resolution instead of overburdening the courts.
Makolo told NAN that attitudes of court officials contribute to delay in justice delivery.
“The attitude of court officials involved in the process of perfecting bail by defendant have also affected the spate of justice.
”Often times, some registrars demand huge sums of money from relations of defendants.
“The result of this is that, in the long run, the relatives get frustrated that they often abandon the defendants in custody,” he alleged.
Makolo called on the Nigerian Bar Association to checkmate the prosecutorial powers of the police as well as activities of court registrars, to eliminate corruption and abuse.
He also urged governments to provide funds for non-governmental organisations which struggle to represent suspects with the aim of decongesting correctional centres. (NAN)
Tags: Anthony Makolo Makolo Anthony Empowerment Foundation
