By Innocent Anaba

Adamawa State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Bala Sanga, has said the state will continue to work on the Administration of Criminal Justice Act till civil liberties of individuals are respected in the state.

He spoke when the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA–MacArthur Foundation team, led by the project Coordinator, Abdul Rasheed Muritala, visited him after a state legislative advocacy and one-day sensitisation workshop in Yola.

Sanga said: “It is bad policies and failure that necessitate the Act. If the Nigeria Police does its work, why would we have congestions in prisons? But states cannot legislate on the Police which is a federal agency.

“Most of the problems that made the Act come up is the failure of the system. If you are doing a good investigation, you won’t arrest anybody before investigation.

“When we pass our own Administration of Criminal Justice Law, it will take care of all these short falls and we will regularly enter nolle prosequi to free people who are detained unjustly for offences, which, at times, do not exist in our laws.”

The Chairman of NBA, Yola branch, Mr. Everastus Odo, thanked NBA for choosing Adamawa State for the workshop, while First Vice-President of NBA, Mr. Caleb Dajan, represented the President, A. B. Mahmoud (SAN).