“In Nigeria, Police arraign suspects before looking for evidence” – CJN chides security agencies

Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam
Mukhtar on Monday in Abuja, took a swipe
at security agencies in the country for their
unprofessional operations.
She decried instances where suspects are
taken to court without little or no evidence
to prosecute them.
Justice Mukhtar described the situation as
one of the reasons for undue delays in the
criminal justice administration system in
the country.
Speaking at a special session of the
Supreme Court to mark the commencement
of the 2013/2014 Legal Year, as well as the
inauguration of 17 new Senior Advocates of
Nigeria, Mukhtar lamented the
“unwholesome practice of some security
agents involved in criminal justice
administration system,” particularly the
arraignment of suspects without first
gathering evidence for prosecution.
“It is common knowledge that our security
agencies usually rush to the courts with
suspects, before looking for evidence to
prosecute them.
“The persistent use of the ‘Holden Charge’
by these agencies to detain awaiting trial
suspects, is a major contributor to the high
number of cases pending in our courts,”
she said.
Continuing, she noted that the procedure is
a far cry from what obtains in other
democracies, “where discrete surveillance is
placed on crime suspects who are
painstakingly stalked by security agents,
until such a time when enough evidence
would have been obtained for their arrest,
arraignment and prosecution.”
“But in Nigeria, suspects are
promptly arrested and often times
arraigned in court, even when no evidence
for prosecution has been gathered.
“The backlash from such failure of proper
investigation by our security agencies is the
resultant hike in the number of cases
pending in the courts.”
The CJN warned that “an extreme
consequence of these glaring lapses may lie
in the loss of confidence in our domestic
justice administration system which
rubbishes our often brandished favourable
investment climate and translate to a huge
disincentive to potential foreign investors in
Nigeria.”
She restated her call for an overhaul of the
country’s criminal laws, which she
described as “archaic and culturally
irrelevant.”
The CJN further expressed concerns at the
slow pace of administration of justice in the
country.
“To exhaust complete remedy in a case,
that is from trial court to Supreme Court,
could take up to 20 years with the original
litigants dead and substituted and in some
cases the substitutes also dead and
substituted,” she said.
Justice Mukhtar also spoke on the
challenges militating against her resolve to
restore the fading glory of the country’s
judiciary.
She stressed that, for her to achieve the
objective, “certain indices have to be
guaranteed; for instance government must
at all times ensure total compliance with
the rule of law as well as adherence to the
principle of separation of powers.”