The Corruption and Financial Crimes Cases Trial Monitoring Committee (COTRIMCO), has submitted its interim report to the National Judicial Council (NJC), indicting all the prosecuting agencies, courts and the Nigerian Prison Service for contributing to delay in trial of alleged looters.
The committee, which is chaired by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Suleiman Galadima, further recommended the deployment of more Judges to handle corruption cases.
A statement by the Director of Information at the NJC, Mr. Soji Oye, yesterday, disclosed that COTRIMCO tendered the report at the 86th meeting of the council.
In the report, the committee identified poor prosecution, absence of counsel for parties in court, reliance on irrelevant documentary evidence, multiplicity of charges, non-adherence to court rules/procedures, retirement/transfer of judges, as well as re-assignment of cases to start de-novo, among factors that have been stalling all the pending high-profile corruption cases.
It maintained that other factors militating against speedy disposal of corruption cases included incessant amendment of charges after commencement of trial, and cumbersome record transmission process to Court of Appeal.
“The committee distilled the issues from its findings from discussions with heads of courts and observations made from the surprise visits of the members to courts handling corruption and financial crime cases in some parts of country.
“On the part of the prosecution, the committee observed the following:- That offenders are charged to court before proper investigations of the charges are done, and afterwards, expecting the court to detain such alleged offenders till conclusion of their investigation.
“Inadequate prosecuting personnel at the prosecution agencies; that some prosecutors lack the requisite experience to prosecute corruption cases, which invariably leads to poor handling of such cases; lack of commitment on the part of some prosecutors and collusion between them and defence counsel to pervert justice either by stalling the trials of cases or achieving pre-determined results.
“That there is no threshold to the number of witnesses the prosecution calls; inadequate funding of prosecution agencies to carry out thorough investigation of the corruption cases with attendant low quality prosecution cases; and frequent requests for adjournment by the prosecutors”, the statement added.
Besides, the committee was said to have observed that the prosecution in most cases, duplicate charges which could be up to 170 counts against a defendant, but at the end, are unable to substantiate them, leading to the discharge of such defendant.
“The committee also observed the issue of multiplicity of cases involving the same Defendants, and on similar subject matters going on in different courts at the same time. This particular factor makes it impossible for some trials to proceed. In spite of the fact that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, provides for day-to-day trials of criminal cases, a defendant who is undergoing trial in other courts is always unavailable for trial”.
It equally pin-pointed the absence of parties in courts as a major factor delaying criminal justice administration, “as cases are mostly adjourned when parties are absent in court”.
Other factors the committee blamed for constant delay of cases are reliance on extra-judicial statement by prosecutors.
It noted that where the defence challenges the voluntariness of a confessional statement, the Judge has to order a trial-within-trial to determine the voluntariness of the confession, thereby causing delay.
“The committee submitted that both the defence and prosecution are often culpable by relying on irrelevant evidence they would not necessarily use thereby causing unnecessary delay”.
On the part of the court, the committee identified the following as contributing to the delay in quick dispensation of corruption cases: “Retirement/transfer of Judges handling such cases. When this happens, such cases which may have gone far are re-assigned to another Judge to start de-novo.
“Granting of remand order by a court without following up to ensure suspects are brought to court; inadequate provision for proper record keeping and shelving of court files and other relevant documents in some courts; cumbersome process of transmission of records from trial courts which impedes the early disposal of appeals; and difficulties associated with ascertaining addresses for service of process by bailiffs”.
It decried that prison on its part contributes to the delay by failing to remind court of subsisting order to reproduce suspects in court and most times lack means to convey awaiting trials to the law court.
Consequently, it recommended proper training for prosecution agencies in the area of investigation, especially in the area of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.
“There is need for prosecuting agencies to have competent prosecution departments manned by qualified personnel; synergy between the various prosecution agencies to enhance proper prosecution of criminal cases.
“Use of professionals, such as accountants, auditors, etc, to investigate high profile and complicated cases; need for training and re-training of staff of court handling criminal cases; need to provide judicial officers with a legal/research assistant to make their work easier.
Meanwhile, worried by the possible derailment of the anti-graft campaign of this administration, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged the Federal Government to disband forthwith, the Presidential Panel on Recovery of Public Property (PPRPP) for its serial disregard for the rule of law and for directly undermining the constitution.
This is as the group also accused the presidential panel of turning the war against corruption into ‘war against opposition’ elements.
Addressing newsmen, yesterday in Abuja, the Coordinator of the association, Mr. Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the call for disbandment of PPRPP became necessary because of ‘the dubious duplicity and illegal manner of operation of the PPRPP, which are primitive, unconstitutional and unacceptable in a 21st century constitutional democracy.’
He said the association had on many occasions asked the government to allow the principle of rule of law and the strict application of the Constitution to guide the officials in all their conducts but noted that there was glaring evidence that the war against corruption has been corrupted to become ‘war against opposition.’
According to him, the group had received multiple petitions against the PPRPP, especially its unorthodox methods of operation, which are extra-legal.
Citing a response letter written by the WAEC to the Chairman, Ad-Hoc Committee on Activities of the Presidential Investigation Panel, House of Representatives, National Assembly, Abuja dated April 17, 2018, in which the examination body noted a disparity in the result of Chief Obono Obla, a copy of which was made available to the media, Onwubiko noted that the group had received petitions through calls about allegations of academic impropriety made against the chairman of PPRPP, but said it had resolved to follow the activities of the ad-hoc committee set up by the House of Representatives to investigate the illegal activities of the panel.
Onwubiko said, ‘‘We are worried that the anti-graft campaign of this administration has significantly derailed, and is rather totally focused as a political witch-hunt and nothing more.
‘‘We have on many occasions asked this government to allow the principle of rule of law and the strict application of the Constitution to guide the officials in all their conducts but time and time again, there is glaring evidence that the war against corruption has been corrupted to become war against opposition.’’
Still speaking about the anti-graft campaign, HURIWA said “we had had cause to write to President Muhammadu Buhari calling for the disablement of the so-called Presidential Panel on Recovery of Public Property, which foundation was grounded on a dead military decree but the President has yet to even reply to our letter, which we sent over three months now, showing that the plots of this government for allowing the existence of this illegal contraption goes to indicate that the current government is planning to replace constitutional democracy with authoritarian communism.
‘‘This is because the Presidential Panel on Recovery of Public Property has completely started the massive clampdown on Nigerians, and especially members of the opposition class, who are known to own property of significant worth.
‘‘The modus operandi of this panel is to first of all approach their targets with a juicy proposal to join the All Progressives Congress and contribute to the running of the party, and gain immunity from further harassment, and for those who had stood their grounds, what this panel does is to instigate series of litigations in the courts presided over by some compromised judges, who had also been blackmailed because of some assets traceable to them or their cronies.
‘‘We once more call on government to disband forthwith the so-called Presidential Panel on Recovery of Public Property because of its dubious duplicity and their illegal manner of operations which are primitive, unconstitutional and unacceptable in a 21st century constitutional democracy,’’ it added.