It adds that where it is impracticable to conclude criminal proceedings after the parties have exhausted their five adjournments each, the interval between one adjournment to another shall not exceed seven days inclusive of weekends.

Another innovative provisions in the new law is that in all circumstances, the court may award reasonable costs in order to discourage frivolous adjournments.

If not for these provisions in the new law, how else would one have explained how the EFCC was able to call all its witnesses and closed its case within two months of the trial of the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Olisa Metuh?

Metuh was arraigned in January this year on charges of money laundering and fraud involving the N400m he received from the Office of the National Security Adviser in 2014 and by next week, following the ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissing his no-case submission, the PDP spokesperson will open his defence next week.

Under the ACJ Act regime, what took eight years to achieve in Dariye’s case had been surpassed within six months in the ongoing trials of former governors of Benue, Jigawa, Imo and Adamawa states, Gabriel Suswam, Sule Lamido, Ikedi Ohakim and Murtala Nyako, respectively.

The former governors were all arraigned last year on various corruption-related offences which they allegedly committed while they held sway as governors of their various states.

The prosecution has been calling its witnesses and there has been no cause to grant an order for stay of any of the proceedings.

On December 4, 2015, the EFCC arraigned a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpolobokemi, and five others, for alleged N2.6bn fraud, before Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos.

In the trial that started on January 18, 2016, the prosecution had called 11 out of the 17 witnesses it listed as of March 10.

The trial judge had heavily relied on the ACJA in ensuring that the trial is not clogged down on any excuse by constantly reminding the lawyers that a new era had come.

The same goes for the trial of other suspects who are being prosecuted for offences relating to alleged diversion of arms.

The impact of the ACJ Act 2015 is not lost on the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, who hailed the new law in Abuja on Monday while delivering his opening remarks at the 2016 refresher course for judicial officers on current trends in law and administration of justice.

He also called on judges to treat corruption cases with urgency as provided for in the law and be “stringent in applying the law strictly”.

He said, “Nonetheless, the new Act strengthens our resolve as it provides that applications for stay of proceedings shall no longer be heard in respect of a criminal matter before the court.

“This unprecedented provision puts a stop to the delays occasioned by interlocutory applications to stay proceedings pending appeal on preliminary matters when the substantive issues are yet to be tried on the merits.”

More needs to be done

A communiqué issued by the President of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Prof. Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), at the workshop on sections 306 and 396 of the ACJ Act 2015, indicated that more still needs to be done to ensure that the law achieves its intended goals.

It stated among other recommendations in the communiqué that “The Act must be given purposeful interpretation and application by the courts so that cases are adjudicated with the urgency required.

“The courts are enjoined to give literal interpretation and full effect to sections 306 and 396 of the Act so as to avoid unnecessary and frivolous interlocutory applications which are meant to delay trials especially of corruption cases.

“The judiciary should develop a strong national judicial policy which should prohibit the abuse of interlocutory applications and injunctions.

“The Federal Government should make adequate budgetary allocations to enhance the implementation of the innovative provisions of the ACJA including payment of witness expenses, training and motivation of prosecutors, investigators and judges in the light of the huge workload occasioned by the Act.

“The Federal Government should cause to be amended the 1999 Constitution to incorporate the provisions of Section 306 of the ACJA.”

Judiciary, not always wrong

Aside these, observers have also urged the EFCC, ICPC and other anti-crime agencies to improve on their investigations and file water-tight charges rather than blame the failure of their cases on the judiciary all the time.

A piece of advice given by the CJN while playing host some officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria in October last year is instructive in this regard.

The media aide to the CJN, Mr. Ahuraka Isah, had quoted Justice Mohammed as telling his guests during the encounter as saying, “Judiciary is like a builder, and works with materials that are brought to it. As such, the materials necessary for construction must measure up to standard in order to be applied by the courts.

“Court cannot carry out investigation and our security agencies must be encouraged to carry out investigation-led arrest and not arrested-led investigation”.

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