By Festus Ahon

ASABA—SPEAKER of Delta State House of Assembly, Mr Sheriff Oborevwori, has identified overcrowding in prisons and other detention centres, unnecessary delay in criminal trials, slow implementation of the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act by other agencies in the Criminal Justice sector such as the Police and Prison Services, among others, as some of the reasons Nigeria’s criminal justice system is ineffective.

Judges

In his goodwill message at the just concluded 5th Criminal Justice Reform Conference organised by the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Criminal Justice Reform Committee in Asaba, Delta State, he  said other reasons behind the ineffectiveness of Nigeria’s Criminal Justice System include “lack of access to good counsel by the poor, continuing practice of holding charge, media trials by security agencies, few properly trained prosecutors, and inadequate funding of agencies involved in the Criminal Justice System.”

He said that despite government’s efforts in making policies and legislation to enhance the effective operations of the Criminal Justice System both at the national and sub-national levels, the aforementioned reasons  continue to make it ineffective.

Urging participants at the conference to come up with strong recommendations that will assist in reforming Nigeria’s criminal justice system, he said “As a nation, we have made a leap in an effort at reforming our criminal justice system through the passage into Law of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.”