FCT to ban non-lawyer police prosecutors

BUKOLA KOMOLAFE
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) judiciary will soon stop police officers who are not trained lawyers from prosecuting criminal suspects at the magistrates’ court.

This, the Chief of the FCT High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello, said was in line with the provisions of the new Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, which provides that prosecution must only be done by law officers.

Justice Bello spoke at a stakeholders’ sensitisation workshop and media briefing on the law organised by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies in Abuja.

The FCT Chief Judge, who was the chairman of the occasion, said the judiciary was poised to ensuring the full implementation of the law, and therefore called on various authorities and other arms of government to play their part by providing the necessary funding and facilities required of them under the law.

He said in line with the desire of the FCT judiciary to commence full implementation of the law, “lay prosecution by non-lawyers,” would only be tolerated for a while during the transitional period between the old and the new laws.

Justice Ishaq traced the origin of lay prosecution to the colonial era when there were insufficient man power to handle criminal cases.

“We thank the police for their service to this nation right from the colonial era because of the non-availability of sufficient manpower. Now that we have sufficient manpower, it is time to stop it. The law no longer accepts lay prosecution. We can only allow it within the transitional period of the new law. Once the transitional period is over, we will no longer accept it in the FCT.”

Representative of the police at the event, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Legal Section in the Force Headquarters, Abuja, David Igbodo, said the police had enough trained lawyers to deploy for prosecution.

He, however, maintained that the new law did not stipulate that the Ministry of Justice at both the federal and state levels should take over criminal prosecution from the police.

“I have searched the entire law, I can’t find where the law talks about taking over. The police and the Ministry of Justice are working to achieve the same aim. So there is no issue of taking over because there is nothing to take over,” Igbodo said.

President of CSLS, Prof. Yemi Akinseye-George, also supported the call by Justice Ishaq for stakeholders to provide necessary facilities for the full implementation of the law.

He said in states like Lagos, Anambra and Ekiti, where the laws had been adopted the problem of delay in prosecuting criminal cases had been drastically reduced.

“Some states such as Lagos, Ekiti and Anambra states have already passed the bill into law. In those states, there is ample evidence of improvement in the criminal justice.

“In a study by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, on the time it took to complete prosecution of a case from arrest to judgement, showed that nationally, it takes 42 months to conclude a criminal case from the arraignment to judgment.

“In the states where ACJ is already in force, the period of delay has reduced to an average of 22 months.”