If things go as planned, the Kano State House of Assembly will
do the final reading of the Administration of Criminal Justice Bill
2017 on Thursday the 24th day of January, 2019. The Bill if and
when passed into a Law will repeal the Kano State Criminal
Procedure Code Law, Cap 37, Laws of Kano State, 1991.
The Bill is the first known attempt to change the old Criminal
Procedure Code Law of the State since the creation of the state in
1967, over 50 years ago. For this sole reason, the House deserves
some accolades.
The Bill consists of 476 Sections carefully categorised into 48
Parts. It covers almost everything on administration of criminal
justice from constitution and powers of criminal courts to
judgement and appeal. In the paragraphs ahead, I will discuss some
of the innovations of the Bill that every Kano indigene or anyone
residing in Kano should know.
Section 27 gives a suspect the right to know the reason for his
arrest, except if he was arrested in the act of committing the
crime or he is a fugitive. He is also entitled to be informed that
he has the right to:
i. remain silent;
ii. consult with a legal practitioner of his own choice before
making any statement to the police; and
iii. free legal representation.
Section 28 prohibits anyone to be arrested in place of a
suspect. That is to say, you cannot be arrested because your son
killed someone or stole money from someone.
Section 29 accords a suspect the right to be treated with
dignity and decency. It also prohibits anyone to be arrested on
civil wrong or breach of contract.
Section 49 gives a suspect, who is arrested and was not released
on bail by the police, the right to be brought before the court
after 24 hours, if the offence he was arrested for is not a capital
one.
The above and a lot more are part of the Bill for administration
of criminal justice. It is going to be a good law. The public
hearing for the Bill for second reading is coming up on 24th
January, 2019. I believe there will be touching and redrafting of
some parts of the Bill before it passes into a Law.
Section 9 (1) and (2), for example, re-establishes Magistrates’
courts, Shari’a Courts and Upper Shari’a Courts. These courts are
already established by Kano State Magistrates’ Courts Law 2018 and
Sharia Courts Law. The Bill can easily state the jurisdictions of
the courts without re-establishing them.
Section 476 repeals the Criminal Procedure Code. But
Section 12 of the Bill reads:
“Section to the provision of section 143 of the Criminal
Procedure Code (124 ACJL)…”
The question here is, if the Criminal Procedure Code is repealed
as stipulated by section 476, can the Bill when passed into Law be
subjected to it? In other words can an existing law be subjected to
a repealed one? Here the drafters lifted the provision of section
143 of the CPC verbatim. And somehow they forgot to erase the
source. They need to sit and look into this and any other issue of
its nature.
There are clerical errors here and there as well. In some
places, you will see ‘the prosecutor’ and in other places you will
see ‘the prosecution’ all referring to the same party.
In some places you will see ‘Magistrate’s Courts’ with an
apostrophe ” ‘s” after magistrate. And in some places you will see
‘Magistrates’ Courts.”
In many places you will see ‘a accused.’ In some places the
first letter of the accused is in uppercase. In some places it is
in lower case.
I believe the above and many others will be considered.
Sani Ammani Esq. is a Kano based legal
practitioner, a legislative drafter and a poet. He can be reached
via amklean@gmail.com.