The Federal Government, through its Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, has planned to have all corruption cases and other serious crimes exclusively prosecuted before its proposed Special Crimes Court.
Our correspondent on Sunday sighted a copy of the bill proposing the establishment of the special court.
The Special Crimes Court Bill, 2016, proposes that the proposed court will exclusively handle corruption cases, and others including narcotic, human trafficking, kidnapping, cybercrime, money laundering and other related offences.
The offences under the existing legal framework are being prosecuted by the law enforcement agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission before the Federal High Court, state High Courts, and the Federal Capital Territory High Court.
The intention of the bill is to ensure speedy trial of offences, as indicated in its title which reads, “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.”
It is proposed in section 7(1) of the bill that it “shall have and exercise exclusive jurisdiction and power in respect of offences specified in Schedule 1 to this Act to be known ‘scheduled offences.’
The “scheduled offences” stated in Schedule 1 of the bill are “Terrorism offences under the Terrorism (Prevention) Act (No. 10 of 2011) as amended;
“Economic and financial crimes under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act (E1 LFN 2004);
“Money laundering offences under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act (No 11 of 2011) as amended;
“Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances offences under the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (N30 LFN 2004);
“Trafficking and kidnapping offences under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015 (No 32 of 2015);
“Corruption offences under the Corrupt Practices and other related offences Act (C31 LFN 2004);
“Kidnapping offences under the Criminal Code (C38 LFN) and the Penal Code (P3 LFN 2004);
“Cybercrimes under Cyber Crimes Act 2015, and
“Such other offences declared under any other Act to be a scheduled offence for the purposes of this Act.”
The bill also under section 45 makes arrangement for the transfer process of the prosecution of the offences in the stated laws from the regular courts to the Special Crimes Court.
It prescribes that where the trial of a scheduled offence has not commenced in a High Court before the coming into force of the Act the trial shall be transferred to the Special Crimes Court.
It allows the regular courts to continue to hear cases which are part-heard before the commencement of “the Act” and are not determined or concluded at the expiration of one year after the commencement of the Act.
Section 45 which is under the “Transitional provisions” of the proposed law reads, “(1) A High Court or any other court shall continue to hear and determine trials and other criminal proceedings in respect of scheduled offences which are part-heard before the commencement of this Act, and any trial or other criminal proceeding, not determined or concluded at the expiration of one year after the commencement of this Act, shall abate and the trial or other proceeding may be brought before the court for fresh hearing.
“(2) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any enactment, including any rule of law but subject to subsection (1) of this section, where the trial of a scheduled offence has not commenced in a High Court before the coming into force of this Act, the trial shall be transferred to the court.”
The Chairman of PACAC, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), has indicated on a number of occasions that the bill had been sent to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), for consideration and onward transmission to the National Assembly. – Punch.
