The Lagos State Judiciary has deployed a new solution to improve justice delivery. ADEBISI ONANUGA reports that the platform tagged ‘Bail Management Information System (BIMS)’ – developed in partnership with Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) and the European Union (EU) – will enable the Judiciary track flight-risk defendants and sureties.
The Lagos State Judiciary last week launched a new web-based solution called ‘Bail Management Information System’ (BIMS), for tracking defendants who jump bail and sureties in cases before magistrate courts.
The pilot scheme of the solution was inaugurated last week by the Chief Judge, Justice Kazeem Alogba, at the Conference Room of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja.
The BIMS project, according to Justice Alogba, is to pilot the development and deployment of the solution for the Lagos Judiciary and help digitise the documentation and management of bail processes in courts in the state.
He said the intervention would ensure that the courts have records, to avoid the rampant incidence of defendants and sureties being untraceable.
“This effort that has been put together such that it will create a synergy with the courts, the defendants at different stages, at different levels; the High Courts, the Magistrates Courts. If per chance a defendant is appearing before a Magistrate Court and has another case before a High Court, if he is let off by the Magistrate Court, once you have noticed that he has another charge to answer in another court, he is not let off by either an order by the Magistrate Court or the High Court.
“This effort will enable us to easily exercise our spread per chance you want to consider conditions for bail if the person has been in a regular court, These are the advantages for the system.
“I think it will be very useful to us even at the High Courts, and the Magistrate Courts level, not only in terms of keeping records, even in terms of other purpose to the judicial staff”, he said.
State Coordinator of RoLAC, Mrs Ajibola Ijimakinwa, expressed hope that other states will learn from Lagos’ developments in the state judiciary to advance the rule of law and justice delivery.
The project which is being implemented in partnership with RoLAC is also to support the efforts of the state judiciary and the criminal justice reform system; to strengthen bail reform and administration in line with the objectives of outputs 1.1 and 1.3 of the RoLAC programme: implementation and adoption of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) at federal and state levels; and developing institutional capacity to advance the priorities of the ACJA and complimentary bill.
It was gathered that the platform which has automated the otherwise manual processes for documenting particulars of the defendants and sureties, has also made bail processes easier to manage.
It was gathered, in addition that it will help ease prison congestion, eliminate trial delays that result from failure to diligently prosecute criminal matters due to absence of defendants who cannot be traced after jumping bail and would help resolve difficulties associated with tracking and verifying sureties.
Other features of the platform include fields for validating identities of sureties by National Identification Number (NIN) and thereby allowing courts to track sureties when the defendants jumps bail.
It was built with features which made it impossible for unauthorised users to access information since only Legal Registrars of the Magistrates Courts are the BIMS manager.
Presenting a demo of the workings of BIMS before stakeholders, the consultant who designed the platform, Mr. Musbau Famuyiwa explained that the project started in November 2021 and in February, 2022, dynamics of the BIMS were identified.
He said: “It is a pilot project. We are not saying this can solve all the problems particularly as regards bail, sureties and defendants.
“We are putting a system that we can build something on in Lagos State. This hasn’t been done in any part of Nigeria. It is a first of its kind in the whole of West Africa.
“We had to model this and tried to see what has been provided at other juisdictions and the best we could get is in the Bahamas, where we have something very close to this. So, I think the Lagos State Judiciary deserve some commendation, for the commission and the commitment to let us get this.”
The platform is in use in Ikorodu and Ogba Magistrate courts of the140 magistrates courts in Lagos.
Other locations soon to access the platform include Mushin Magistrates District, presently located at the Samuel Ilori Court House, Ogba, Apapa Magistrate Court at Sikiru Adagun Court House, Apapa, J.I Taylor Court House, Igbosere, Ebute-Metta Magistrate Court located at Botanical Garden, Yaba Magistrate Court and office of the Deputy Chief Registrar (DCR), Legal, Ikeja.
“What we have now will enable us not only to profile the sureties but we will know this person is representing this.
“We don’t want a situation where in Lagos, this 2022 some people can’t get bail because we don’t have records of people who stand as surety”, he said.
The web solution is at http://bimslagos.com.ng.
It was gathered that over 60 registrars have been trained to use the platform, while over 100 sureties have been profiled. The platform is also accessible to court registrars via the website.