Special corruption courts take off in Abuja, Lagos

Posted by admin Abuja (FCT), Headlines, Lagos, State News Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

IMPLEMENTATION of the reforms proposed for the judiciary by the 28-man stakeholders’ committee set up by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Dahiru Musdapher, will begin in January 2012, Nigerian Tribune has exclusively learnt.

The report of the Justice Mohammed Uwais-led committee, containing the proposed reforms, is expected to be officially presented to him before the end of this week. A source said that tomorrow Thursday, had been tentatively fixed for the ceremony.

This came as Justice Musdapher disclosed, on Tuesday, that special courts and designated judges to try solely corruption and economic crimes-related cases would take off in Abuja and Lagos soon with jurisdiction to try the said corruption cases to be vested in Federal High Courts.

Nigerian Tribune gathered from a top source within the system that the special courts are also taking off in January 2012.The pilot scheme, according to him, will run for two years in the Federal High Courts situated in the aforementioned places.

A statement issued in Abuja by the Media Adviser to the CJN, Mohammed Adamu, stated that Justice Musdapher made the disclosure when a team from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), led by its acting chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, paid him a courtesy visit.

The CJN was also quoted as saying that the special courts would be directed to ensure that interlocutory appeals did not lead to stay of proceedings, with the corruption trials expected to be on a daily basis.

According to the CJN, “let them hear these corruption cases day in day out for two years and let’s see. For this to work, you will have to be proactive in your investigations and you may even have to increase the number of your investigators to cope with the challenge,” he said.

On the issue of interlocutory appeals and, particularly, the issue of stay of proceedings, Justice Musdapher was quoted as saying that the courts would be directed to adjudicate in compliance with section 40 of the EFCC Act which outlaws, subject to the provisions of the constitution, such practice.

According to him, “even if interlocutory appeals are made, let them continue with the substantive case.”

For the novel idea to be effective, Justice Musdapher promised to increase the number of judges of the Federal High Court.

The CJN and the EFCC team were also said to have agreed on the need for legislation to regulate the application of plea-bargain to prevent its abuse.

Musdapher had publicly demonstrated his disdain for the arrangement, which he described as fraudulent and alien to the laws of the land.

In his response, Lamorde reportedly assured the CJN of sustained in-house training and retraining tradition of the commission, especially in the area of investigation and called on the CJN to encourage the chief judges of the various courts to buy into an earlier recommendation of the CJN that trial of corruption cases should not exceed six months.

-Tribune

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