The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), said the legal and regulatory framework must be effectively implemented in order to facilitate the application of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, and the effective use of non-custodial sentencing.
“The purpose of non-custodial measures is to find effective alternatives to imprisonment for offenders. This is in accordance with the current global shift in punishing convicts with alternatives to prison terms,” the AGF stated while addressing a two-day workshop on the implementation of non-custodial measures and sentencing guidelines under ACJA, 2015 for judges, police prosecutors, Federal Ministry of Justice prosecutors, and correctional officers from the North Central States and the Federal Capital Territory held on Monday in Abuja.
The aim of the trend, he said, is to give the judges and magistrates much latitude and discretion to award befitting and purposeful punishment to convicts aside from the punishment suggested by the statute creating the offence.
In an address read on his behalf by the Director, Administration of Criminal Justice Reform Department of the Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Leticia Ayiola-Daniels, Fagbemi described sentencing as a core judicial function in criminal justice.
“In discharging that function, the sentencing judge must strive to achieve the right balance between imposing a merited sentence in the case at hand while maintaining a broad level of consistency with other cases so that sentencing at a systematic level is fair.”
According to the AGF, the ACJA, which was enacted and came into force on May 13, 2015, placed a premium on non-custodial sentences. Adding to that, the Federal Government has set out guidelines to stipulate the requirements and procedure for imposing non-custodial sentencing to prevent abuse and ensure reasonable uniformity and fairness in the imposition of sentences.
The Justice Minister said that since the coming effect of the Practise Direction in 2020, the sentencing landscape has continued to develop rapidly and extensively, and the courts have handed down many more sentencing frameworks to guide the exercise of sentencing discretion in a broadly consistent way.
The AGF expressed its belief that the workshop would provide a timely opportunity to reflect on recent developments and look forward to what might lie ahead in the context of sentencing in the courts.
“Today, we have seen countless cases where defendants are arrested for minor offences and locked up in prisons, adding to the population of awaiting trial inmates.
“These offenders remanded with hardened criminals end up being initiated into a life of crime instead of being reformed,” he said, adding that the essence of the workshop is to share knowledge on the effective use of the instruments that will lead to a decrease in arbitrary punishments, uniformity in punishments, and the utilisation of alternatives to imprisonment to decrease the population of awaiting trial inmates.
“The use of non-custodial measures has facilitated a reduction in our correctional facility to the barest minimum 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 Services Act, 2019.
“The guidelines provide appropriate standards and measures for the sentencing process in offences against the state, person, or public order for uniformity and fairness in sentencing, which will further strengthen the criminal procedure system,” he explained.
Fagbemi noted that the success of any system of criminal justice administration depends on the level of effective implementation of the guidelines by the agencies involved and urged all the participants in the workshop to remain undoubtedly indispensable stakeholders, playing crucial roles in enhancing law and order through the performance of a constellation of functions such as prevention of crime, detection, investigation, apprehension of offenders, and enforcement of the law.
He also expressed the hope that the non-custodial measures and sentencing guidelines will be more operational and effectively implemented in order to achieve the objectives and purposes of the reforms in the criminal sector.
He noted that the Federal Ministry of Justice, as the leading stakeholder in the justice administration in Nigeria, will continue to develop appropriate frameworks and measures to overcome the unique challenges in the criminal justice sector and strengthen the application of law to align with international best practices.
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