Delegates at the National Conference have endorsed the establishment of special anti-corruption courts, as well as the concept of plea bargain in the country’s justice system.
These decisions were taken after the consideration of the report of the conference committee on law, judiciary and legal reforms.
According to the resolution, preliminary objections, interlocutory injunctions and stay of executions must not be entertained in such courts.
The confab also approved the recommendation that the Chief Justice of the Federation should be elevated to the position of number three citizen in order of protocol in the country.
Over 300 delegates attended plenary after the a stern warning was issued by the Federal Government over some delegates at the conference who have formed the habit of absenting themselves from the proceedings of the conference without prior permission from the confab leadership, saying it would not pay the sitting allowances of such delegates who fail to attend plenary on sitting days save for medical reasons.
The conference also rejected the recommendation to have the Prisons Service moved from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list. The conference could only entertain the views of only 80 delegates before moving on to consider the amendments.
The delegates also voted against a proposal seeking to inject a clause, granting ethnic groups, states and regional blocks the right to self determination in the Nigerian Constitution.
The adoption has therefore doused apprehension that some groups at the conference were out to insert the self-determination clause in the constitution in order to pave the way for the disintegration of Nigeria.
There had been insinuations that the South South geo-political zone of the country was preparing the grounds for a possible secession from Nigeria if its demand for total resource control in the confab was approved.
