Cross River to domesticate Administration of Criminal Justice Act

Cross River State is set to become one of few states in the
country to adopt and domesticate the Administration of Criminal
Justice Act.

The adoption of the Act is a demonstration of the political will of
Governor Ben Ayade who feels that the justice sector reform in
the state should move beyond the criminal procedure code.
The Act which has ample benefits seeks the prosecution of
criminals and offenders to achieve best results.
In addition, it would empower the state to provide the procedure
for the trial of corruption cases outside the Independent Corrupt
Practices Commission (ICPC).

Speaking on the readiness of the state to domesticate the law at
a workshop in Calabar, the Speaker of the Cross River State
House of Assembly ,Rt.Honourable John Gaul Lebo said the
foundation of the laws is the political will of the Governor who
feels that his first responsibility is to provide a justice sector
reform system that goes beyond the criminal procedure code
passed in 1963 for all of the southern states.

"It is a law that provides criminal procedures for all of the
southern states. Now offenses have come that the circumstance
and sophistication of societies no longer makes that law tenable,
it’s outdated and so Cross River State is moving ahead of other
states and we are going to be the first state after the federal
government to domesticate this law. But we are domesticating
this law with necessary modifications to suit the legal
environment of Cross River State," said the Speaker.

He highlighted some provisions of the Act to include the child
right law, passage of the child rights commission, plea bargain
and the provision of the procedure for the trial of corruption
cases.

In his words: "the special features in this law for us are that we
have passed the child’s Right law, we are about the first state
and we are the first state to also pass the child’s Right
commission.

“And you know when you have the child’s Right commission you
now need to provide for a procedure for the trial of children and
then providing for custody for children outside of prison or
outside of medical asylum. So that provision is there, and we are
also going to be the first state to provide for a procedure for trial
of corruption cases in cross river state outside ICPC. Like l said
ICPC can try certain cases if it comes from capital receipt of our
budget or from federal funds given to Cross River State. But for
funds that arose out of our IGR or the Appropriation Law of Cross
River State, the courts in Cross River by the administration of
criminal justice law will have the jurisdiction and powers to try
corruption cases.

“Now for financial cases we have our public accounts committee
reports where people are judged to have committed financial
offences. Sometimes you have like 300 persons and then 2 or 3
political cases are taken to EFCC .The administration of criminal
justice by expectation of his Excellency the governor is to ensure
that we also have such courts designated within that. We also
have community service. There are simple offences that you don’t
have to go to prison, the sentence is to go and teach in a
primary school or go and do NGO activities to educate people on
how not to commit offences.”

Speaking earlier on the necessity of the law to the state, the
Attorney General, Joe Abang said the Act will be of tremendous
importance to the state.

According to him, the state has been preparing for this "so we
have armed ourselves and you will agree with me. Recently the
governor gave me the chance to recruit another 30 technocrats
into the ministry, the whole essence of adding 30 new hands,
getting the computers, E –library is to put us in better footing to
be able to administer criminal justice and help in the
administration in the state and indeed in Nigeria. We are ready in
the ministry of justice to do our worAct