Aregbesola frowns on miscarriage of justice, seeks accelerated trials

Minister of Interior and the immediate past governor of Osun State, Mr Rauf Aregbesola on Friday recommended that there should be a deliberate judicial action that will lead to an acceleration of trials with strict deadlines set for the conclusion of investigations, trials and delivering of judgements in all cases.

The minister who made this known at the commissioning of the newly constructed state headquarters of the correctional service (NCOS) in Osogbo Osun state, remarked that this is necessary, “as we see and admire in other specially developed countries where trials and judgements are wrapped up in one week.

“A lot of people commit crimes by sneering at our judicial system, in the belief that they would frustrate and weary the prosecution. An end should come to such shenanigans.”

“This reform should also include the introduction of the parole system, that subject to good behaviour and evidence of reformation, a convict can be released before the completion of the original sentence.”

“This should also include that a convict should have a timeline for parole review. This is a strong motivation for good behaviour and confidence-building among convicts.”

However, “we will need the cooperation of state governments in addressing this challenge. The overwhelming majority of offenders are state offenders being tried by their respective State Governments.”

“The State Governments can therefore accelerate the wheel of justice. A lot of inmates have been in custody for a period longer than the maximum sentence their alleged offences carry. This fundamentally is a miscarriage of justice.”

“So many factors are responsible for this, including but not limited to tardy investigations and prosecutions, personnel shortage in courts, movement of suspects to court, health challenges for the suspects and deliberate delay tactics or sheer incompetence by counsels on both sides, leading to unending adjournments and prolonged stay in custody. But the bottom line is that delayed justice is a denied justice.”

While disclosing that, the Federal government is building a 3,000 high-capacity custodial centre in each of Karchi, Abuja FCT, Kano, Kano State and Bori in Rivers State, the minister explained that, each of these high capacity facilities will have courts for the trial of the inmates and that, the plan is to extend it to the six geo-political zones in the country.

According to him, the Kano project is nearing completion affirming that, “when these projects are completed, they will ease congestion considerably and enhance the capacity to manage our facilities for corrections.”

The former Osun state governor added that the Federal government is working out a Public-Private Partnership in which custodial centres will become a huge enterprise park where manufacturing, vocational training and agriculture activities and all artisanal trades will take place.

“Our target is to make inmates that passed through our system to be economically viable and equipped with better skills and character compared to anyone when they complete their terms and are back in the society.”

“I am confident that this State Command Headquarters Complex will provide the officers and men of NCoS with a conducive working environment that will elicit greater commitment, productivity and efficiency.

Aregbesola who stated that one main challenge of the correctional service, is congestion of the custodial facilities, pointed out that, the entire national custodial facilities have a maximum capacity for 57,278 inmates and that, by the last count earlier in the week, there is a total population of 68,747 inmates, made up of 67,422 males and 1,325 females.

According to him, “We have therefore shot above the capacity by 18 per cent. But I must add that the congestion is an urban phenomenon limited to big cities like Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and others. There are facilities in non-urban areas that are underpopulated”.

” It is in the urban areas that most of the crimes are committed and relevant courts are located, leading to the overstretching of the custodial facilities located in such cities. It should also be noted that 50,992 inmates, representing 74 per cent of the total population of inmates in our custodial centres are awaiting trial inmates while only 17,755 inmates which is a mere 26 per cent are actual convicts.”

“The challenges of safe and effective custody at the custodial centres come therefore from the awaiting trial inmates, given their numerical strength. This fact greatly limits our capacity for corrections, since awaiting trial inmates being suspects, can only be accommodated and not reformed. Reformation comes after conviction and not before.”

“This is the reality of the management of inmates that must be squarely registered in the minds of the Nigerian public for a better appreciation of the service and its limitations at the rehabilitation, reformation and reintegration of convicts and a reduction in recidivism.”

“But, the government has been addressing this challenge of congestion. Last year, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Federal Government, through the Ministries of Interior and Justice, initiated presidential pardon and amnesty programme for inmates.”

“Some federal offenders benefited from the programme and got a reprieve, while the state governments got recommendations and guidelines for release of their own convicts. More than 5,000 inmates have so far being released under the programme, which is ongoing.”

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