A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), CLEEN Foundation, has lamented the unfairness of plea bargain and its implementation process in the country.
Mr Peter Maduoma, Ag. Executive Director of the organisation, spoke during a media parley with newsmen at the CLEEN Foundation Hall, Innocent Chukwuma House, Ojodu, Ikeja on Wednesday.
Maduoma said that it had become necessary for that section of plea bargain, as contained in the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL), to be amended and changed for proper justice to be delivered accordingly.
“The plea bargain is very unfair and it is one of the weaknesses I see in the ACJL.
“A situation where somebody has stolen N50 billion and then, through plea bargain, is ordered to pay a certain amount and then after that, the matter is settled.
“This is very unfair and I will like the media to continue to publicise and write on the unfairness of that section of the law until it is amended and changed.
“A law cannot be cast in stone; So, we need to continue to improve on it but that aspect of the ACJL has not yielded much benefit to anybody,” the director said.
Maduoma said that the plea bargain was mostly exploited by security agencies and especially politically exposed people, who after embezzling money, settle to pay back a meagre amount as settlement.
“Thereafter, all charges will be dropped against them; however, what that money would have done and the lives that had been affected negatively by such act, is not replicable.
“This makes the plea bargain very unfair particularly with the way it is being implemented in Nigeria,” the director said
Similarly, the organisation’s Programme Director, Mr Salaudeen Hashim, said that politically exposed persons had now seen plea bargain as an exit door to escape justice which was a fundamental element.
“Once a crime is committed, it beholds on the state to ensure that justice is served.
“However, what we have clearly happening is that at the point of investigation, they quickly introduce plea bargaining as alternative to that person going through the justice route.
“So, once this happens, it offers that person some level of safe guard and that safe guard means that he no longer gets to be entirely processed through the court”.
Hashim said that plea bargain was actually not being implemented in the actual sense as the law had stipulated it.
He said that no matter what the plea bargain arrangements were, it was actually made to be an arrangement that offered a speedier process for justice to be served.
“But they cut off the aspect that borders around punishment and at the end of the day, make it a win-win for both the perpetrator and the state.
“This is actually the consequence for the poor nature of conceiving the law and how we have also implemented it,” Hashim said.
(NAN)
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