Why it is difficult to reform Penal, Criminal codes – TheNigerialawyer

By Adelanwa Bamgboye

A man in society deserves a good measure of security of life and
property. A criminal on the other hand deserves serious attention
and treatment from the state and its enforcement agencies.

Today, the two main criminal legislations in the country:
Criminal Code (South) and Penal Code (North) are in need of urgent
review to keep pace with current realities.

For instance, the offences that attract the death penalty
presently are Murder (Section 319 of Criminal Code and 221 of Penal
Code); Treason (Sections 37 and 38 of Criminal Code and 411 of
Penal Code); Treachery (Section 49A of Criminal Code); Giving false
evidence leading to the conviction and execution of an innocent
person (Section 159 of the Penal Code); Armed Robbery, trial by
ordeal resulting in death (Section 208 of Criminal Code and 214 of
Penal Code). Meanwhile, most countries have abolished the death
sentence.

Penalties imposed by both the Criminal and Penal codes also need
urgent updating regarding fines. This is against the background
that both codes were enacted in the last century.

Both codes contain fines that require serious update to meet
current realities. For instance, when a court sentences an offender
to pay a fine; whether with or without imprisonment under both
codes, the court which sentences the offender may direct by the
sentence that in default of payment of fine, the offender shall be
committed to prison for a certain term.

In some cases, the period of imprisonment may be up to one year
for an offence that requires the payment of a fine not exceeding
N100 and one-month imprisonment for a fine of N50. This is because
N100 in those days used to be a lot of money.

Out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),
only Lagos has updated its Criminal Laws with the enactment of the
Criminal Laws of Lagos State in 2011. Under this law, a different
scale provides that an offender who is sentenced to three years
imprisonment may pay a fine of N360,000, while an offender
sentenced to three months may pay a fine of N45,000.

On the other hand, the Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC)
which major business is to keep under review all Federal Laws with
a view to their systematic development and reform in consonance
with prevailing norms of the Nigerian society, is currently
undertaking a revision exercise of all laws of the federation. The
exercise started in 2018.

The NLRC, in response to several appeals, decided to unify the
two codes which should be applicable in the FCT and can serve as a
model for the states to adopt with such modifications as local
circumstances may dictate.

Today, the unification of the two criminal justice systems has
reached advanced stage; with a view of making the Nigerian legal
system responsive to people’s needs.

A lawyer, Chinonye Edmund Obiagwu (SAN), said the Federal
Government (FG) did not take NLRC serious.

Obiagwu further said NLRC ought not to be under the executive
arm of government as it is today, but under the legislature.

A former Chairman of NLRC, Barr. Kefas Magaji, who agreed with
Obiagwu, said that was the commission’s greatest challenge.

Barr. Magaji said, “The law setting up the commission provides
that when law reform finishes the work, we submit it to the
Attorney General of the Federation (AGF). It is the AGF who will
now submit it to the Federal Executive Council (FEC). It is the FEC
which will now take it to the National Assembly as an executive
bill. We borrowed the law from England. In England, the AG is a
member of parliament. So when law reform is submitted to the AG, it
automatically goes to parliament, but in our system here, the AGF
is not a member of parliament, so he has to go to FEC before it is
passed on to the National Assembly (NASS) by FEC.

“So, the chain here is quite long, and that affects the smooth
transmission of our report to the National Assembly which finally
enacts it.”

Not too long ago, Daily Trust gathered that stakeholders sat on
the matter and agreed that as much as NLRC is an arm of the
executive, the commission should continue to submit its reports to
the AGF who in turn will forward it to FEC. But then, because NLRC
is being funded by public funds, the public is entitled to having
its reports. It was then agreed that as the commission submits its
reports to the AGF, it should also be submitting its reports to the
NASS so that if the AGF cannot present the bill to them, it can
also look at what the commission has done.

If the NASS is satisfied with what the commission has done, it
can proceed to enact it without necessarily waiting for the AGF to
go to FEC. The NASS and the Office of the AGF seem to have accepted
that arrangement when the Administration of Criminal Justice Act
(ACJA) 2015 was passed into law.

dailytrust.com

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