Research fellow recommends plea bargain for recovery of looted funds

Eseosa Okuku, a research fellow of the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Abuja, has recommended plea bargaining for government as the best system to recover the looted assets from the public office holders and other Nigerians indicted for corrupt practices.

Plea bargaining, according to her, is an innovative system where persons indicted for corruption and breach of trust surrendered the looted assets to the government to receive light punishment in return.

Delivering a lecture on “Understanding the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015” at a training organized for judiciary correspondents in Abuja, the lawyer said that the system was better for Nigeria to adopt so as to be able to recover all assets looted without much stress.

She explained that the plea bargaining approach enhances speed-up justice delivery as it enables criminal prosecution to be conducted without going into full trial.

The lawyer cited section 270 of the Act which empowers the prosecution mainly, government to offer or accept a plea bargain from a person indicted for corruption with the consent of the victim during or after the presentation of the evidence of the prosecution but before the presentation of the evidence of the accused person.

She also urged government to always ensure that acceptance of plea bargain is in the best interest of justice, the public interest, public policy and the need to prevent abuse of legal process.

 She however, lamented that most of the high profile corruption cases instituted against some public office holders have not achieved the desired results because of the technicalities in the law on corruption in the country.

 Rather than wasting years to prosecute corruption cases, NJI fellow said that it will not be out of place if the country fully adopts plea bargain system to deal with the treasury looters.

 “Most of the former governors charged with corruption as far back as 2007 are either roaming the streets freely or holding other elective offices”.

 I believe if plea bargain had been adopted, the looted assets would have been fully or partially recovered from them.

 “The Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 is commendable for its innovative provisions aimed at reforming the criminal justice system and for addressing some of the fundamental issues militating against the efficient and speedy dispensation of criminal justice in Nigeria.

 “The provisions of the Act are geared towards curing most of the anomalies and gaps in the existing criminal legislations which were taken advantage of by some lawyers to cause delay in justice delivery.

 “The Act is very progressive, it is timely and in conformity with international best practices. The Act regulates more than just criminal procedure; it covers, in most part, the entire criminal justice process from arrest to sentencing guidelines.

 “Another major challenge is the issue of funding to put in place the necessary machineries for the smooth implementation of the provisions of the Act.

 “There is therefore the need for adequate funding of the judiciary to guarantee its independence as there can be no proper reform of the criminal justice system without an independent and impartial judiciary”, she explained.