The Deputy Director General, Nigerian Law School, Enugu Campus, Mr. Bob Osamor, has decried the negative impact of plea-bargain in the Nigerian legal system.
He therefore called for the provision of sentencing guideline in the plea-bargain system to address the flaws in the administration of criminal justice procedure.
Osamor, who spoke at a public hearing of a bill for a law to make provisions for the procedure to be followed in criminal cases in the High Court and in Magistrate’s Courts in Enugu State, held recently, explained that what the nation currently had as plea-bargain in the statute books was an abuse in itself as it encouraged corruption.
“For instance, a man stole N4billion and if he is indicted, he returns N2million and he is given six months imprisonment starting from the day he checks into the most expensive hospital, and probably he may spend two or three months in the hospital where he meets with his family members when he is supposed to be in jail.
That is not plea-bargain,” he said. He added that the concept of plea-bargain must be pure sense of plea-bargain and urged members of the Enugu State House of Assembly to provide something different in its criminal procedure act and set the pace for others to follow. – New Telegraph.
