The Gombe State House of Assembly on March 2, 2021 passed into law the Gombe State Administration of Criminal Justice Bill, 2020.
While, commending the good office of the Hon. Attorney General in initiating the enactment of the Administration of Justice law by way of an executive bill presented to the Gombe State House of Assembly, Gombe State has now assumed the 31st placed state in the federation that has dully domesticated the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).
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The objectives and purport of the ACJA as earlier highlighted in Section 3 of the draft bill, seeks to outrightly repeal the entire Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) Law of Bauchi State as (adopted) applicable to Gombe State by virtue of the Legal Notice No.1 of 1996.
Although, the repeal of the old enactment on the procedural law shall not affect the previous operation of the enactment of anything done or suffered under the enactment in respect of pending cases, the new law substantially preserves the existing criminal procedure system, and also introduces innovative provisions that could enhance the efficiency of the justice system by adopting more acceptable trends used in the Evidence Act 2011 in criminal trial as related to offences triable in state courts (I repeat, triable in state courts such as magistrate and high courts). Such innovations include Abolition of Stay of Proceedings and Interlocutory Appeals, Recording of Statement of Suspect; Monthly report by Police to Supervising Magistrate; Quarterly Report of arrests to the Attorney-General of the State; Returns by Comptroller of Correctional Centre; Right of the defendant to Bail and not to be called “Accused person”; and Non-Custodial Sentence among others.
However, as good as the intention of the law and its sponsors would appear to be, the speed at which the bill was passed by the State House of Assembly, without probably adequate stakeholders in the justice sectors’ participation and input, gave rise to a greater concern. In particular and like other observers, I remember pointing out 82 observations only in the introductory part/content of the draft bill on very essential points when it was posted in the NBA Gombe branch WhatsApp group. Given the short time the assembly handled these fine observations and incorporated them in the draft bill, both at the committee stage and to the whole house for passage, heightened more fear especially, considering the quality of some of the representatives.
Notwithstanding the above, there is still room to allay such fears through further scrutiny by the Executive. The Executive has power to wholly scrutinise the bill passed to ensure that it wholly and substantially represents the scope and object of what was initially sent and deliberated upon. The executive governor, in conjunction with the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the State should ensure that the purpose of the bill is achieved before the final assent thereby making criminal litigation and adjudication in the state pleasant and easy.
Ibrahim Ahmad Kala, LL.M can be reached via [email protected]
