 |
| Justice Mahmud Muhammed |
CHIEF Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Muhammed
on Monday expressed worries over the unremitting delays in trials before
various courts in the country stating that it is the major challenge facing the
nation’s justice system and therefore pledged to ensure that the reform is
extended to the sacred institution.
The CJN spoke on Monday while declaring open the
2016 refresher course organized for magistrates on current trends in Law and
Administration of Justice by the National Judicial Institute (NJI) in Abuja
adding that a restructuring which is on the way would improve the
administration of criminal justice system, reduce delays, restore public
confidence as well as improve judicial performance.
Emphatically, he noted that more often than not, delays
in trials are deliberate acts caused by the tricks of parties in most cases,
and then, some administrative deficiencies of the court leading to irritating and
unnecessary adjournments.
“Often, prosecutors or defence counsel are unable
to present their cases or witnesses and Investigating police officers are often
unavailable or transferred; there is sometimes a lack of diligent rendering of
legal advice on whether there is a prima facie case to prosecute, an increased
use of preliminary objections, unnecessary legal devices for delaying trials
and a myriad of others too numerous to mention here” he said.
Justice Mohammed also stated that the volume of criminal prosecutions
in the country is becoming alarming resulting to congestion of the prisons and
therefore canvassed for other measures to reduce crimes particularly preventive measures.
No comments:
Post a Comment