Benue State University, Makurdi
LAW JOURNAL VOLUME 9, 2019/2020
Plea Bargain as an Instrument of Fast-Tracking Criminal Justice Delivery under the State Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Benue State, 2019
Abstract
It is pedestrian to opine that justice delivery in Nigeria in general and Benue State in particular is marred with avoidable delays. The need to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the judicial system with a view to engendering quick administration of justice has necessitated the enactment of the State Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2019 (the SACJL) by the Benue State House of Assembly. The SACJL, among other things, provides for plea bargain. Spurred by the desire to examine the extent to which the SACJL has enhanced speedy dispensation of justice through plea bargain, this article adopted the doctrinal method of research in which reliance was placed primarily on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the SACJL as well as judicial authorities. Reliance was also placed on secondary sources of information such as opinions of eminent scholars expressed in books and journals. It was found that though plea bargain is a veritable catalyst for speedy trial, its effective utilization is hamstrung by absence of a provision stipulating timelines within which to conclude the plea bargain process, insufficient legal practitioners in the Ministry of Justice and the legal department of the state police command to prosecute offences, especially as the SACJL now makes the duty of prosecution the exclusive preserve of lawyers, the non-inauguration of the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (the Committee), and so on. It is advocated that the SACJL should be amended to provide 30 days within which to conclude the plea bargain process, more lawyers should, as a matter of urgency, be employed by the State Government and the police authority so as to make the process of plea bargain seamless and that the State Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee should be inaugurated without delay, among others. |
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Faculty of Law,
Benue State university,
Makurdi.
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