Consolidated Sentencing Guidelines will reduce prison congestion — Malami

Godwin Tsa, Abuja

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) on Monday expressed confidence that the proposed consolidated sentencing guidelines will reduce congestion in the nation Correctional Centres through the use of non-custodial sentences.

He explained that the proposed guidelines were in line with section 470(2)(c) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA’, 2015 and section 2(1)(b) of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019.

Malami, disclosed this during the Virtual interactive session of the Presidential Committee on Correctional Service Reform and Decongestion with stakeholders to review the federal Capital Territory Courts Sentencing Guidelines and Practice Direction 2020.
He added that the guideline is geared towards implementing one of the major recommendations of the National Workshop on the Effective Implementation of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019.

According to him, some of the objectives of the proposed guidelines is to set out the appropriate standards and guideline for the sentencing process in offences against the state, person, public order, morality, homicide, property and corruption related offences, for the purpose of ensuring reasonable uniformity and fairness in sentencing in the Federal Capital Territory;

He also said the the new guideline is to set out the requirements and procedure for imposing custodial and non-custodial sentences for the purpose of preventing abuse and ensuring reasonable uniformity and fairness in the imposition of sentences.

Malami said, ”This interactive session has therefore brought together relevant stakeholders especially the FCT Judiciary to review, ratify, validate and adopt the consolidated draft document which will hopefully be signed in no distant time by my Lord, the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court.

”It is expected that this pilot document will be extended to other States of the Federation, especially those States that have enacted the Administration of Criminal Justice Law. The administration of our criminal justice system is an embodiment of diverse institutions respectively engaged in the detection, prosecution and adjudication over offenders culminating to conviction and sentencing”.

The Chairman of the Presidential Committee, Justice Ishaq Bello, who is also the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court in his welcome address said the introduction of non-custodial sentences such as probation, community service, restitution, compensation and suspended sentence by the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 was one of the main innovations of the new Act which was aimed at addressing the problem of congestion of correctional facilities in Nigeria.

He however noted that the existing Federal Capital Territory Courts (Sentencing Guidelines) Practice Direction, 2016 did not make adequate provision for non – custodial measures which necessitated a review to address the existing gaps, relating to non-custodial sentencing and to ensure fairness, consistency and uniformity in imposition of both custodial and non-custodial sentences.

He said subsequent review of the FCT Courts Sentencing Guidelines Practice Direction, 2016, following the enactment of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019 revealed that tgere is inadequate provisions on the circumstances when non-custodial sentence can or cannot be imposed;

He added that there is also ambiguity as to whether the discretion on non-custodial sentence should be confined to the provisions of the ACJA and the Sentencing guidelines;

In his closing remark, the Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Mr. Dayo Apata, SAN, appreciated the Justice Sector Stakeholders and Experts for their participation and contributions , especially the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Honourable Justice Kazeem O. Alogba, who shared the Lagos state experiences, challenges and lessons in the Administration of Justice.

He also expressed gratitude to the AGF and the United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), for their consistent support towards the success of the Justice Sector Reform programs of the Federal Ministry of Justice.

The Secretary of the Committee, Mrs. Leticia Ayoola-Daniels, while speaking with the Media expressed satisfaction with the success of the event and hoped that the Committee will continue to enjoy the support of relevant Justice Sector Stakeholders in the delivery of its Mandate to fast track the decongestion of Custodial centres via the deployment of selected crucial measures.