The Lagos State Ministry of Justice has held a stakeholders’ meeting to enhance and promote plea bargain and district prosecutor’s scheme, writes ADEBISI ONANUGA
Stakeholders in the justice sector gathered in Lagos last week to map out strategies for enhancing and promoting the plea bargain and district prosecutor’s scheme of the state government.
The meeting was in continuation of the government’s efforts to decongest correctional facilities across the state and ensure quick dispensation of justice.
The event – a hybrid of physical and online attendance – was organised by the state’s Ministry of Justice through the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Present at the meeting were representatives from the legal unit of the police, lawyers, district prosecutors, law firms, and representatives of correctional facilities, amongst others.
Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), reiterated the state’s commitment to enhancing the administration of criminal justice.
This, he explained, would involve implementation of the use of video conferencing in criminal proceedings, monthly magistrates’ visits to police stations, prohibition of media parade of suspects, remote hearing, and award of compensation to victims of crime, among others.
According to Onigbanjo, plea bargain has served as an important tool to keep the wheels of justice moving in a timely and cost-effective manner.
He said it had helped decongest the “extremely congested” correctional facilities, noting that available data suggests that the facilities exceeded their capacity by 100 per cent with inmates awaiting trial making up 85 per cent of the number.
“To demonstrate our commitment towards the exercise, we took plea bargain a step further about four months ago, when I led a team of lawyers to the Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Facility for a plea bargain sensitisation exercise where more than 15 plea bargain agreements were executed on site and sanctioned immediately by the judges through virtual hearing.
”Seeing the huge impact of this scheme, Lagos State Government extended the services to all Magistrate Court Houses across the State,” Onigbanjo said.
He said the meeting, besides being an opportunity to create more awareness about plea bargain and the District Prosecutors Scheme, also served as a platform to receive feedback from stakeholders on how to improve and further strengthen the scheme.
The District Prosecutor Scheme took off in April, 2020, following the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Police Prosecutors at the Magistrate Courts, chaired by a former AG, Fola Arthur-Worrey, to set up a review mechanism that would ensure residents were not unnecessarily detained for charges that are civil in nature.
He said based on the recommendations of the committee, “Mr governor’s approval was sought and with the cooperation of the Lagos State Judiciary, the Ministry of Justice deployed District Prosecutor’s to three Magistrate Courts including Ebute-Meta, Ikorodu and Ogba to vet charges prior to filing and ensure case files submitted for remand met the evidential threshold required by law.
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Earlier, the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Ms. Titilayo Shitta-Bey, stated in her welcome address that the state had done a lot to improve its administration of justice system through various innovative schemes that had set the pace for other states.
According to her, the plea bargain had also assisted in the decongestion of prisons and promotion of speedy dispensation of justice which wasn’t restricted to particular persons but for everyone, irrespective of the person’s status – rich or poor/illiterate or literate, race and tribe.
For the Director, Public Prosecution (DPP), Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Adeyinka Adeyemi, the essence of the workshop was to eliminate perceived misconceptions about plea bargain hence, the need for sensitisation programmes for stakeholders in the legal community as well as the public.
She reiterated that the application for plea bargaining was free, noting that over 500 applications had been reviewed and considered.
Programme Coordinator of the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) programme, Mrs. Ajibola Ijimakinwa, noted that the body had partnered with the state’s Ministry of Justice on plea bargain with the training of judges, magistrates and prosecutors and also the development of a plea bargain manual to sensitise lawyers and judicial correspondents on how to report plea bargain processes and outcomes accurately.
She commended Lagos State for being a pacesetter in the administration of criminal justice system, urging other states to emulate the giant strides achieved of the state.
Reiterating the importance of the District Prosecutor’s Scheme, Arthur-Worrey, who was the guest speaker at the event, stated that the District Prosecutor’s duty was to ensure that the AG prosecutorial mandate is properly represented at the district level, and that only cases that satisfy the “reasonable suspicion” clause of the 1999 Constitution and the “probable case” provision of the ACJL were allowed to pass through the vetting process and end up before the magistrate for trial or remand.
This, he noted, would reduce congestion of cases while abuse of prosecutorial power would be checked and matters concerning actual suspects would proceed speedily.
In his submission, an Associate Professor of Public Law at the University of Lagos, Dr. Akeem Bello, stated that one of the strategies to decongest correctional facilities was the periodic review of case dockets to identify problematic cases that may be reconsidered for plea bargaining.
He advised that the negative public perception about plea bargain could be addressed through a systematic engagement and enlightenment.