A Critical Appraisal Of The Innovations, Problems And Prospects Of The Administration Of Criminal Justice Act 2015, In The Nigerian Justice System

ABSTRACT

The recent revelation that it takes twenty two long years to conclude a case up to the Supreme Court, and between five to ten years at the state High Courts, which has made public the challenge of criminal justice administration in Nigeria is startling. Even without further query, it presupposes that the problem with the judiciary is deeply entrenched at the root of its entire structure, and beginning from the court gatemen to bailiffs, clerks, registrars, and messengers down to typists and other official who play equally very essential roles in the administration of justice. Reasons being that most times court processes are not served on parties except money exchanges hands between litigants/counsel and court official or the police and prison official who complain of lack of logistics and adequate remuneration/mobilization. This, and many others for the umpteenth time, has hindered and is still clogging the wheel of justice from grinding on full development.

The whole gamut of the Act is geared toward achieving efficiency and maintaining effective delivery in the administration of criminal justice institutions. It is not merely important that justice should be done but it is necessary that it should be manifestly and judiciously seen to be done.

Yet, in recent times, there have been lots of complaints against the institutions in charge of administration criminal justice system, in Nigeria. These problems, some of which have been traced to criminal institutions and the law itself, are congestion of courts workloads, delay in dispensation of justice, abuse of the processes and inefficiency by the practitioners and/or law enforcement personnel, delay issuance of Attorney General's Copy of legal advice and prisons congestion. These necessitated the re-enactment of the law to possibly cure the ills complained of. Ideally the lawmakers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have a mandate to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof had to repeal the former criminal

procedures and collapse them into one, which emerged as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act in (ACJA) 2015.

The preoccupation of this research is to evaluates the entirety of the Act particu