The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA),
on Thursday concluded arrangements to adopt and domesticate the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 in 28 states of the federation where the Act has not been adopted.
The NBA President, Abubakar. Mahmoud (SAN) disclosed this yesterday in Abuja while speaking at the ACJA conference, organised by the association, in conjunction with Mac Arthur Foundation on, “Promoting Domestication and Implementation of the Administration of Criminal Justice Legislation Across Nigeria”, which he said can be achieved through advocacy and provision of technical support to the state with a view to guiding them for domestication or adoption.
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He said the NBA will partner with the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) to provide continuing legal education to stakeholders, adding that the the project will be implemented in three stages.
“The NBA envisages that the project will be implemented in three phases over a period of 36 months in 28 states, which are yet to domesticate the ACJA legislation.
“The 28 states will be divided into three groups which will be spread across the years, 2017, 2018, 2019. The states that will be selected for each year and phase will reflect all the six geo-political zones of Nigeria”. he said.
Mahmoud said, in order to ensure efficient and effective achievement of the intended results, the NBA’s strategy is to create some administrative structures which will include project management team, state committee and NBA Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE).
He said the NBA shall largely leverage on information and communication technology (ICT), in driving the project, nothing that, “We propose to launch an Administration of Criminal Justice Website which shall serve as the information hub and the go-to site for information regarding criminal justice administration in Nigeria. We shall also design a portal for online delivery of continuing legal education training”.
“NBA believes that within the context of our federal system, it is possible to promote alignment of objectives of our laws and legal principles, synergy of our institutions and acceptance of efficient institutional processes based on national and indeed internationally accepted standards.
“As at now, eight states have adopted and passed the Administration of Criminal Justice. A few others are in the process and at various stages of passing the legislation. In effect, 28 states have not. It was in this context that the Nigerian Bar Association approached the Mac Arthur Foundation with a project proposal to support criminal justice reforms in Nigeria and in particular to support the adoption and implementation of the ACJA”, he said.