Monday, August 15, 2016

Special Crime Court -This is necessary if the war against corruption is to make progress

Latest: Corruption and Money Laundering.

Special Crime Court -This is necessary if the war against corruption is to make progress.

The Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption’s preparation of a draft bill, tagged: The Special Courts Bill 2016, for the purpose of establishing a superior court of record to speedily try corruption and other related cases, is commendable. We believe that if the bill becomes law, it will provide opportunity for the special courts and the prosecutor agencies to acquire necessary technical proficiency in the prosecution of criminal offences. Media reports said the draft has been forwarded to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), for review and transmission to the National Assembly for legislative action.
The bill, according to its title is:”An Act to provide for the establishment of a Special Crimes Court as a superior court of record to allow for speedy trials of certain offences, including economic and financial crimes, terrorism, money laundering and corruption offences and for related matters.” The bill provides for exclusivity over cases listed in its schedule and for a transition period, upon its coming into existence. So, the bill in its section 7 provides that it: “shall have and exercise exclusive jurisdiction and power in respect of offences specified in Schedule 1 to this Act to be known as ‘scheduled offences.”
We commend the presidential committee for its effort in preparing the bill. We also hope the AGF and the national and state assemblies which will need to collaborate to enact the bill into law and amend the relevant portions of the constitution would work hard at this important assignment. They need not be reminded that our country has been laid waste by corruption, the malignancy of which has manifested in several other sundry crimes that further aggravate the very bad situation.

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