PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT (ACJA) 2015

This thesis examines the problems and prospects of administration of criminal justice and in particular the difficulties of applying and realising the purposes of Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015. This is because the Criminal Justice System is beguiled with behemoth of problems. The corollary has been a harvest of woes, impediments and denigration of human rights and derogation of societal values. Generally, it is in the interest of the public that wrong doings are punished and the interest of justice to uphold rights and give everyman his due. But when this purpose cannot be realised it has occasion the innocent man to be punished with the wrong doers thus, these interests, of justice and public, have therefore been contrived.

The Administration of Criminal Justice lay down the processes to be followed to punish or acquit an offender or an innocent suspect. The Nigerian Constitution provides that any person charge with a criminal offence has a right to be presumed innocent and a right of fair hearing in public within a reasonable time by a law court. So, to be held guilty on account of any act or omission, which amount to crime under the law, with punishment enforced, that is ordinarily not heavier than the penalty in force at the time the offence was committed, the person must be charged to court and found guilty as charged with the commission of the offence by court of law. If not, acquits him. Yet, in recent times, there have been lots of complaints against the institutions in charge of administration criminal justice system, in Nigeria.

These problems, some of which have been traced to criminal institutions and the law itself, are congestion of courts workloads, delay in dispensation of justice, abuse of the processes and inefficiency by the practitioners and/or law enforcement personnel, delay issuance of Attorney General?s Copy of legal advice and prisons congestion. These necessitated the re-enactment of the law to possibly cure the ills complained of. Ideally the lawmakers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have a mandate to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof had to repeal the former criminal procedures and collapse them into one, which emerged as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act in (ACJA) 2015.

The preoccupation of this research is to evaluates the difficulties and projections of the ACJA particularly as it concerns it purposes which effectively guarantees access to justice, rule of law, humane treatment and dignity of suspect, defendant or victim and its quest to ensure, promote and make certain the efficient management of criminal justice institutions, speedy dispensation of justice in Nigeria and et cetera. Others are the protection of the society from crime and protection of the rights and interests of the suspect, the defendant, and the victim and ensure compliance with the provisions for the realization of those purposes in the system of administration of criminal justice.