‘Inadequate funding of police, bane of criminal justice’

Posted by admin Headlines, Nigerian Police Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede SAN, on Tuesday, identified lack of adequate funding of the Nigeria Police as one of the major problems facing administration of criminal justice in the country.

He also advocated the construction of more prisons as a panacea for de-congestion of prisons across the country.

Jegede, who said this in Akure, at the inaugural meeting of the Committee for the Reform of the Criminal Procedure Law of Ondo State, said if the police were funded like the anti-graft agencies, it would be able to perform better.

According to him, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) were performing because of the volume of funds available to them.

Speaking on the need to decongest the prisons at the event held in conjunction with the Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) of the Catholic Church, Ondo Diocese, Jegede said efforts should also be made to protect the majority of the people against violence.

He said governments, at all levels, should consider building more prisons and de-emphasise the doctrine of decongesting the prisons at all cost.

He, however, said the state government had commenced moves that would ensure the quick dispensation of justice, noting that one of such moves was the movement of courts to prisons.

The Bishop of the Catholic Church, Ondo Diocese, Reverend Jude Arogundade, said the church was ready to collaborate with the state government in its quest to totally reform the criminal justice procedure of the state.

The Chief Judge of the state, Justice Olasehinde Kumuyi, suggested that the criminal justice procedure in the state should be updated as the problems lie in the implementation of the rules.

He disclosed that in order to ensure that cases were dispensed with within reasonable time frame, the state would soon appoint new judges to fill the existing vacant posts.

-Tribunewp_posts