The Senate’s Majority leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba on Monday asked the Judiciary to address the issues surrounding plea bargaining in Nigeria.
Mr Ndoma-Egba said this while speaking at a public hearing aimed at finding solutions the problem of the high number of Nigerians awaiting trial in prisons across the country.
According to the Chairman, Senate committee on Judiciary, Human rights and legal matters, Umaru Dahiru, 33,692 out of 42,124 inmates across the country are awaiting trial.
He said it was for this reason that the joint Senate committee on judiciary was mandated to review and evaluate the measures by the government and relevant agencies in addressing this problem.
Last month an alleged mastermind of the 2010 Independence Day bombings in Abuja died in prison custody in unclear circumstances. The high profile incident made headlines.
Many inmates some of them awaiting trial die in prison with no body batting an eye lid.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke said the lack of proper investigation by the police is a major factor why there is a high number of inmates in Nigeria prison.
“It has just been argued with reasonable conviction that most of the awaiting trial persons have no business being in prison, if care was taken to properly and dispassionately evaluate the offences or allegations made against them,” he said.
Mr Adoke said the government is already looking at ways to address the problem of prison congestion.
“As at December, 2011, about a total of 12, 400 cases had been concluded while 7, 630 have been granted bail and 3, 560 convicted,” he said.
The Minister said the lesson to be learnt from last year’s prison decongestion program include the need to alter the 1999 constitution “as has been variously suggested.”
The second lesson according to him is “to remove prison from the exclusive list, to allow states with the requisite resources to build and operate state prisons.”
According to the Solicitor General of the Federation the sum of N8.7 billion has been spent on the prison reform programme from 2006 to 2011.
Mr Ndoma-Egba said the high figure of inmates awaiting trial is indicative of a failing penal system.
He faulted the manner in which plea bargaining is practiced in the country.
“How come it is only the high and mighty in the society who are beneficiaries of plea bargain,” he asked.
One thing the contributors at the public hearing agreed on was that there is a need to overhaul the justice system to accommodate alternative punishment other than imprisonment as a solution to the high number of awaiting trial inmates in prisons across the country.
