Dr. ACB Agbazuere, has
dragged the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Ministry of Justice and
the National Assembly before the Federal High Court, Abuja over the new
Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 signed into law early this year by
former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
In the Originating Summons in the suit on Monday, the Abuja-based Lawyer and Human Rights Activist asked the Court to determine whether the provisions of Section 165(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 requiring the deposit of a sum of money or other security as the Court may specify from the Defendant or his Surety before bail as approved, is not inconsistent with the provisions of Section 36 (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended) to the effect that every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty.
In a 17-paragraph affidavit he deposed to in support of the suit, Agbazuere argued that the provisions of the new law runs contrary to the 1999 Constitution and that if allowed to exist, a Nigerian citizen who has no money or other security will be deprived of his right to bail and will not have his bail approved and will, therefore, be sent to prison until he/she pays the money when he/she is yet to be tried for the offence.
In the Originating Summons in the suit on Monday, the Abuja-based Lawyer and Human Rights Activist asked the Court to determine whether the provisions of Section 165(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 requiring the deposit of a sum of money or other security as the Court may specify from the Defendant or his Surety before bail as approved, is not inconsistent with the provisions of Section 36 (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended) to the effect that every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty.
In a 17-paragraph affidavit he deposed to in support of the suit, Agbazuere argued that the provisions of the new law runs contrary to the 1999 Constitution and that if allowed to exist, a Nigerian citizen who has no money or other security will be deprived of his right to bail and will not have his bail approved and will, therefore, be sent to prison until he/she pays the money when he/she is yet to be tried for the offence.
He
added: “The law is that the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria is supreme and if any other law is inconsistent with the
provisions of the Constitution, the Constitution shall prevail and that other
law shall to the extent of its inconsistency shall be void by virtue of Section
1(1) and (3) of the Constitution.
“My Lord, I submit that in our laws, presumption of innocence is so sacrosanct that the burden of rebuttal or the burden to discharge presumption of innocence at any time demands that the Prosecution would have established or proved the essential ingredients of offence and the accused person is unable to bring himself within the defences or exceptions allowed under the law generally.”
“My Lord, I submit that in our laws, presumption of innocence is so sacrosanct that the burden of rebuttal or the burden to discharge presumption of innocence at any time demands that the Prosecution would have established or proved the essential ingredients of offence and the accused person is unable to bring himself within the defences or exceptions allowed under the law generally.”
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