AN EXAMINATION OF THE EFFICACY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT, 2015 IN ENHANCING JUSTICE DELIVERY IN NIGERIA: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL

Abstract

The Nigerian criminal justice administration has been plagued with manifest challenges ranging from poor handling and inhuman treatment of suspects, proxy arrests, onerous and practically impossible bail conditions, delayed prosecution of cases blamed on the court, the prosecution and the counsel, to terribly poor living condition of prisoners in our various prisons to corrupt practices of the law enforcement officers, magistrate/judges and lawyers. It is against this background that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 was promulgated to bring sanity, legality and justice to our criminal justice jurisprudence. The said Act is the focus of our discussion in this paper. It is apposite to mention that while space will not allow us to evaluate all the provisions of the Act, this paper shall concentrate on some of the innovative and revolutionary provisions of the Act particularly as it serves to better the lot of our criminal justice administration. The instrumental and institutional parameters for measuring the performance of criminal justice administration shall be discussed. This paper shall also make various recommendations towards ensuring proper and just criminal justice administration in Nigeria.