LANRE ADEWOLE periscopes how judiciary is trying to redeem self in an unusual time.
There is a joke about the season of the novel coronavirus pandemic, codenamed COVID-19, being the right time to commit crime, because virtually all system of punishing crimes in Nigeria, from the police to the court and the prison, is on the lockdown, compelled by the raging health and social crisis. The “community spread” phase of the virus is getting the corrective and punitive system into an unusual act of benevolence, leading to different levels of amnesty from the prison authorities on the directive of the president and state governments, while the headship of the judiciary is encouraging the system operators to be mindful of sending more offenders or awaiting-trial suspects to already overcrowded correctional centres and even the prison authorities are saying, enough is enough for now.
Chuks Njoku, a deputy comptroller of prison, who speaks for the Nigerian Correctional Service, speaks to what is now being dubbed, locally and internationally, as the next bus stop of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, if urgent steps are not taken, a worry that has prompted President Muhammadu Buhari, to fire a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad.
Speaking to Sunday Tribune, Njoku confirmed all prisons in the country are now in a lockdown and not admitting new inmates to the already-overcrowded centres .
He explained that officials of correctional centres in different parts of the country are also made to undergo specified testing for COVID-19 at every point of their resumption for duty and that visitors are no more allowed at the prisons for now.
According to him: “before the first index case for coronavirus was recorded in Nigeria, the Comptroller-General , Ja’afaru Ahmed, had inaugurated a committee. Let me tell you that during the time of Lassa fever and upsurge of other diseases, we never recorded any case in any of our correctional centres and no pressman has given us kudos for that. We have over seventy thousand inmates. We were able to control these diseases from getting into the correctional centres all over the country. This will not be an exception by the grace of God and with the power of incumbency that we have now in the correctional service, we will not experience any problem. We want the public to relax.”
He added that: “The court has made it easy for us. With the direction by the Chief Justice of the Federation, no court is sitting again. We are not receiving any inmate now. We have also suspended visit to any custodian centre. The comptrollers of different states have been asked to go and sensitise the inmates in their states. They have been asked to tell everybody… that we are sacrificing something. The inmates should sacrifice visit for their lives. There is a partial lockdown in most of the states .
“If we authorise visitation, some of their people , who are based overseas and coming back may want to come and visit them. This is what we cannot guarantee. The best thing to do is to suspend visitations. With that, we can monitor those that are in the correctional centres. Our staff that are coming to work everyday and are made to undergo the necessary procedure required by the National Centre for Disease Control and the Ministry of Health.
“Also in all the correctional centres , there is an isolation centre. If sickness of any nature runny nose, fever or cough, is detected, he or she will be isolated to that particular place, where the person will be observed for a period of time. And if there is a manifestation of a near-suspicion of COVID -19, the victim will be transferred to the centre, nearest to that correctional centre.
“With all these in place and with a task force (Rapid Response Monitoring Committee) that we have put in place in all the states, we assure all Nigerians that we will do all our best to curtail the spread of COVID -19 in our centres.”
But as reassuring as Njoku may sound, the rest of the world is not convinced that the lockdown, particularly of the judiciary, leading to nearly all the cases before the courts, being practically halted, may not trigger a more calamitous “community” spread of the virus, with the likely attendant human tragedy.
Following President Buhari’s call on the judiciary, the very conservative system, decided to be proactively-contemporary but in small measure, starting with the first ever virtual emergency meeting of the National Judicial Council (NJC) on Wednesday and Thursday. With just four members including the CJN who is also the chairman of the Council and Secretary, Gambo Saleh, being physically present at the Council secretariat in Abuja, the remaining 18 members were connected all over the country and the meeting was successfully held, culminating in the Council also berthing for the first time in history, on the social media, launching its handle on Twitter.
Seeking a new path.
Justice Tanko’s NJC, after the two-day meeting, decided to set up a committee to look into how stalled cases can be fast-tracked, considering the growing restlessness, concern and worries about how the shutting down of the courts due to the pandemic, could further aggravate the problem of the wheel of justice which grinds slowly everywhere, but particularly still slower in Nigeria. In truth, not all the pending 155,757 cases before courts in Nigeria, are experiencing delay. Despite the directive of the CJN to heads of courts on March 23, 2020, to suspend court sittings for two weeks in tandem with the COVID-19 Regulations issued by President Buhari, and another letter dated April 6, 2020, extending the suspension of court sittings “till further notice given the lockdown measures put in place by the federal government and some state governments to curb the spread of COVID-19”, designated courts at all levels up to the Court of Appeal, are still sitting, to attend to time-bound cases, like election petitions and the Supreme Court, which has been on a total lockdown, from available information, may also start sitting next week.
For example, disputes arising from the conduct of Governorship and Kogi West Senatorial re-run elections are being heard as scheduled, as well as other related cases, that the Constitution gives a definite lifetime.
That those cases are running and others, particularly those touching on the abuse of fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution , are stalled, is the major grouse of many stakeholders with the operators of the system, who are now being forced to seek a way out, following the presidential intervention.
Unlike the like of Falana who are worried about the perceived abridgment of some detainees’ fundamental rights, President Buhari is mainly worried about the congestion in the 240 Correctional Centres around the country and the devastating impact COVID-19 could wreck if any of the detainees, regardless of alleged crime, should test positive.
A president’s letter and angry judiciary.
In his letter to the CJN on Tuesday, as revealed by the president’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, Buhari is calling for urgent measures towards the speedy trial of cases and decongestion of custodial centres in the country in view of Covid-19 pandemic, while drawing Tanko’s attention to the recent call by the United Nations on all countries, to consciously reduce the population of prison inmates since physical distancing and self-isolation in such conditions are practically impossible.
The president’s letter further reads, “From available records, the inmates population at various custodial centres across the country presently stands at about 74,127 out of which 52,226 are Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs).
“Most of these custodial centres are presently housing inmates beyond their capacities and the overcrowded facilities pose a potent threat to the health of the inmates and the public in general in view of the present circumstances, hence the need for urgent steps to bring the situation under control.”
In view of the above scenario, the president said “it has become imperative for Your Lordship to request State Chief Judges to embark on immediate visit to all custodial/correctional centres within their respective States to identify and release deserving inmates where that has not been done already.”
He noted that during such visits, “the Chief Judges are enjoined to consider conditional or unconditional release of ATPs who have spent 6 years or more in custody. ATPs who have no confirmed criminal cases against them, aged inmates and terminally-ill, may be discharged.
“It is expected that particular attention should be on the aged, those with health issues, low risk offenders, those with no sufficient legal basis to remain in custody, inmates convicted of minor offences with or without option of fines and inmates who have less than three years term left to serve having served a substantial term of their service for offences that attract five years and above.
“Payment of fines may be made in favour of inmates convicted of lesser offences with option of fine, who are in custody because of their inability to pay such fines.”
Adesina said the president demanded that a report on the proposed visits was expected to be forwarded to the Presidential Committee on Correctional Service Reform and Decongestion Secretariat, domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja for compilation and onward transmission to his office, while suggesting that the CJN, should at this stage, consider taking immediate steps as appropriate to ensure the setting up or designation of Special Courts in all States, including the FCT, to try cases of armed robbery, banditry, kidnapping and other serious offences, in order to facilitate speedy trials.
Finally, the president wanted the Chief Judges of States and FCT High Courts to direct lower courts to comply with requirements of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act/Law in issuing remand warrants in criminal cases especially in cases which are not within their jurisdiction. According to him, this, will regulate the volume of entry of Awaiting Trial Inmates into custodial centres.
However, despite what should ordinarily pass as good intentions from the executive arm for meaningful collaboration, the president’s letter, Sunday Tribune has learnt, was met with anger within the judiciary, because of the timing, considering that the letter came on Tuesday and the NJC meeting which was concluded on Thursday, began the day after the president’s intervention.
Knocks for Malami, Adesina.
A top source within the judiciary who was raging on Friday, knocked the duo of AGF Abubakar Malami and President’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, for allegedly playing to the gallery, by making it look as if the executive prodded the judiciary to act on the challenges presented by COVID-19. The top operator was very certain the executive knew beforehand that a special Council meeting was scheduled, before rushing a letter and a statement, a day before the commencement of the emergency Council meeting, which was conducted electronically, the first of its kind in the country.
Prior to this, Femi Falana while calling on the top echelon of the judiciary to find a way around the COVID-19 lockdown had suggested that Tanko and his team, should adopt the usage of teleconferencing platforms like Zoom or Skype, in conducting pending cases, instead of shutting everything, except political cases, down.
Falana had said in his letter, “Pursuant to Your Lordship’s letter dated March 23, 2020, all Heads of courts in the country were directed to suspend court sittings for two weeks in tandem with the COVID-19 Regulations issued by President Muhammadu Buhari. In another letter dated April 6, 2020 Your Lordship extended the suspension of court sittings “till further notice given the lockdown measures put in place by the federal government and some state governments to curb the spread of COVID-19.
“No doubt, the decision of the National Judicial Council to suspend the sittings of all courts was predicated on the need to protect our Judicial Officers and judicial staff from the coronavirus pandemic. However, in view of the decision of the federal government to relax the lockdown by allowing markets, shops and stalls selling food and groceries to open to customers between the hours of 10:00 am and 2:00 pm daily the National Judicial Council ought to review the suspension of court sittings to enable them to attend to urgent matters.
“The review has become necessary in view of the fact that motions for the bail of many criminal suspects and applications to secure the enforcement of the fundamental right to personal liberty of other detainees are pending in several courts in all the states of the federation and in the federal capital territory. In addition, the return dates in respect of several ex parte orders made by Magistrates for the remand of a number of criminal suspects which have since expired are due to be quashed or renewed to extend time for further investigation.
“In order to ensure that thousands of people who are either awaiting trial or under investigation are not subjected to unlawful detention we are confident that our humble request will be granted.
“More so that the heads of the various courts are vested with the power to designate Judges and Magistrates to attend to urgent matters in accordance with the laws establishing such courts. However, in order to observe the social distancing directive we suggest that arrangements be made for Judges to hear urgent applications via Skype or Zoom”.
He also noted that though the CJN directed all courts to attend to matters that are urgent or time-bound, fundamental rights cases and bail applications are not heard.
He then cited the experience of Kenya which had freed nearly 5,000 inmates through court sessions conducted via Skype, in the course of the coronavirus lockdown in the country.
Scrambling for solutions
Since the Falana’s letter was not officially replied, it would not be known if the intervention had anything doing with the decision of the Council to commence what looks like civilised jurisprudential business within the system, considering that despite the country being the most-populous, her judiciary has remained nearly absolutely analogy in operation, even at the level of the Supreme Court, though the immediate Chief Registrar of the apex court, Gambo Saleh, who incidentally is the incumbent Secretary of the NJC, computerised the administration of the highest court, but proceedings in open court were yet to enjoy such privilege. Despite the anger directed at the executive by judiciary operators, for allegedly trying to make the Bench appear inactive, unresponsive, lacking in initiative and foresight and clueless about its functions as expressly enshrined in the Constitution, it is now certain that it cannot choose to be seen, ignoring the President’s letter, in the very dismissive way, it treated Falana’s.
The Thursday meeting dragged late into the night as discovered by Sunday Tribune and one of the decisions reached, was the setting up of a committee to work out the modalities for getting the system running again.
In a statement from the Council’s spokesperson, Soji Oye, on Friday, the 10-man committee is mandated to come up with “urgent practical strategic measures to be put in place in order to ensure Courts continue to function despite the lockdown and Covid-19 challenges.
Headed by the most senior justice of the apex court, Bode Rhodes-Vivour, other members are listed as President, Court of Appeal, Justice M. B. Dongban-Mensem, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John T. Tsoho, President, Industrial Court, Justice B. B. Kanyip, Justice Ishaq Bello, Justice Kashim Zannah, Justice O. A. Ojo, President Nigerian Bar Association, Paul Usoro, SAN, a former NBA leader, Mr. Abubakar B. Mahmoud, SAN and Mr. Damian Dodo, SAN.
Oye added that, “The Committee, inter-alia, has the following Terms of Reference: i) To come up with Guidelines or template for implementation;
- ii) To explore possible areas of collaboration between the Judiciary and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, stakeholders in the Justice Administration and Development Partners in Justice Administration Sector; and, iii) Any other measures that the Committee may deem fit in realising these objectives.”
The Committee, according to the spokesperson, has fourteen days to submit its Report, which the President said he was also expecting.
Not a rocket science
Many industry watchers can’t see a rocket science in getting the system working in a lockdown, considering precedents nearly everywhere, including Kenya and South Africa, where what could pass for cyber-judiciary is now the vogue as the coronavirus continues to hold the world down.
The burden of the top operators may also not be too difficult at the end of the day, with the promise by the police to fully implement the directive of the Inspector General of Police that cells should be decongested as much as possible
Speaking on the decongestion exercise, the image maker in charge of the Lagos State Police Command, Bala Elkana, said police are currently setting those with minor offences free, but cannot release those with capital offences like murder, armed robbery and rape.
According to him, “I refer you to my last statement. The commissioner of police (CP) in charge of Lagos State, Hakeem Odumosu, was the first to give that order. If you follow the trend, you will see that the statement was issued on Saturday and then on Sunday, Force Headquarters issued their own. On Saturday, the CP after meeting with all Area Commanders and DPOs instructed that all suspects, who were arrested for minor offences should be released immediately.
“All of them (DPOs) have complied. It has been a total compliance. All of them with minor offences have been released except those with capital offences. You cannot release notorious armed robbers who have killed people to go into the street and kill more. You don’t expect rapists to be released and go back to continue the act. Those with capital offences are still being held while those with minor offences have been released,” he explained.
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