NBA Constitutes Committee To Review Conflicting Judgements

By Ayodele Oni

The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has set up an Adjudicative Review Committee, to look at  conflicting court judgments in the country.

The committee will point out areas of the conflicts, and also try to identify where the courts got it wrong and suggest the position that best reflects the position of the law.

Speaking at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the NBA held in Akure, the Ondo State capital, Osigwe expressed worry about such judgments from courts of co-ordinate jurisdictions; the development, he said, impinged on the integrity of the judiciary.

Osigwe said that the NBA has pointed out the disturbing trends to judges and is encouraging academics and lawyers to write reviews of such judgments and publish them to draw attention to them.

Besides, he said lawyers should, in presenting arguments before the court, not confuse the judges by not failing to bring to their attention the existence of the authority or make them believe that there have not been any previous decisions on the matter.

He explained that where there are previous decisions in existence, the lawyers should bring the existence of such a decision to the attention of the court so that it would be better guided in coming to a decision.

The NBA chairman described as worrisome the number of awaiting trial inmates in different correctional facilities, pointing out that 65 per cent of prison inmates in the country are those awaiting trial and not those who have been convicted for various crimes.

According to him, “Those are the condemned criminals, as you call them, who are already sentenced.

“They have had their day in court. We are worry about those who are simply remanded in prison facilities without having their cases tried, or their case taking an intolerable length of time to come to a conclusion.

“This is on account of one delay or the other, and sometimes serving more time in prison than they would if the court has convicted them, or even acquiring one disease or the other in prison, or even dying.”

On way forward Osigwe added that “We have mandated our Human Rights Committee to work with the Chief Judges of the states to ensure that they do prison visits, and also to give a directive to all magistrates that if you give a remand order, you must give a return date for a review.

“If the prosecution, Ministry of Justice, fails to file a charge, that they should order the release of such persons, so that people do not spend time in prison detention without being charged to court.

“This will also ensure that the courts, in line with provisions of the Police Act and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, will visit detention facilities, whether of the police, of the army, of the DSS, of the NDLEA to check the length of time people have been detained there, to order that they be released on bail, to order that they charge them to court, or release them entirely.

“The bar is getting this engagement to ensure that people who have no reason to be in detention are released and that people do not spend a long time in detention without a charge being filed against them.

“We are doing advocacy, we are engaging to ensure that we comply with the provisions of the law to avoid this ugly situation being the dominant thing, being the reason rather why people are in various detention facilities.”

On discipline among members, Osigwe said “We are ensuring that our disciplinary process works, that petitions received against lawyers from members of the public, by lawyers, by litigants are attended to.

“We see that our disciplinary panels work, and that where a prima facie case or where it is believed that there is reason to go forward against the lawyer, for him to face the legal partitioner disciplinary committee, that such a lawyer goes there.”