A review of the Nigerian Constitution to pave the way for adoption of inquisitorial system of criminal prosecution, as against the present adversarial system of jurisprudence has been advocated by Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Godwin Obla.
According to the SAN, the adversarial system assumes that an accused person is innocent of the alleged crime until the prosecution is able to prove to the court the contrary, while inquisitorial system of criminal prosecution, on the other hand, assumes a person against whom an allegation is made, liable of the allegation except he leads evidence to absolve himself of the allegation.
Speaking as a guest lecturer at a workshop hosted by the Lagos branch of National Association of Judicial Correspondents (NAJUC), with the theme, "Prosecutorial Powers: Limits, Challenges And The Role Of The Media," Obla maintained that the Nigerian Constitution as presently constituted, unwittingly overprotects the accused person in criminal trial.
The SAN added that the areas which the law itself was acting as clog to criminal prosecution must urgently be addressed for the good of the nation.
The senior lawyer added that it was time when an accused person is made to prove his innocence against the allegation leveled against him. According to him, "Take for instance, Section 35 (2) of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) gives the accused the right to remain silent and to avoid answering question until after consultation with his lawyer.
"Again, under the same Constitution, Section 36 (5) presumes the innocence of the accused of committing the crime until the contrary is proved. These obviously constitute constraining limitations to criminal prosecution.
The SAN also advocated the need for the Nigerian laws to be reviewed from time to time to meet up with the modern day realities, with an addition that, "Against the background of the fact that modern white collar crimes are usually carried out aided by the instrumentality of electronic devices, you could imagine the constraint of the prosecutor a few years ago when the Evidence Act had not been amended, as the old Evidence Act did not allow for admissibility of electronic or computer generated evidence."
The senior lawyer expressed concern over the changing values of the society to criminality, especially those of economic and financial crimes.
The EFCC lawyer pointed out that considering the disconnect between the leaders and the led which had led to loss of expectations and general moral decadence, the society now tends to view economic crime committed by public officers more or less like a heroic act.
He said, "You see, the opprobrium and sense of shame that hitherto were part of the attendant consequences of facing criminal prosecution are fast eroding. In consequence of this, the investigator and eventually, the prosecutor are usually faced with the herculean task of gathering enough evidence required to prove the criminal allegations contained in the charge.
"Equally, dauting is the readiness and willingness of other persons to collaborate with the accused person to frustrate the course of justice by helping to conceal or destroy evidence required in the prosecution."
Director of Lagos Multi-Door CourtHouse (LMDC), Mrs. Caroline Etuk, stressed the need for legal practitioners to embrace the concept of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) accused lawyers of frustrating the success of ADR in Nigeria.
Etuk said, "I have always told them (lawyers) that with ADR, they can have multiple streams of income, but many lawyers are yet to believe that they can actually make more money practicing ADR."
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