SAN FRANCISCO, November 27, (THEWILL) -The Corruption and Financial Crimes Cases Trials Monitoring Committee (COTRIMCO), inaugurated by the National Judicial Council (NJC), is set to meet with prosecutorial bodies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in furtherance of its mandate.
NJC’s Director of Information, Soji Oye, said this in a statement adding that the Committee has so far received information on 2,306 existing corruption related cases in courts and are presently receiving attention from the four sub-committee to which COTRIMO has been divided.
He gave details of the distribution of the cases as including 554 pending in the Abuja zone, comprising courts in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 347 pending in the northern Zone, comprising courts in Northern states, and 1,405 pending in the southern zone, comprising courts in southern states.
“The sub-committees are: Practice Directions, Training, Feedback and Engagement and Awareness. They were constituted at the meeting of the anti-graft panel, under the leadership of the Chairman, Hon. Justice Suleiman Galadima, CFR (retd),” he revealed.
“The committee also divided the country into three zones for ease of monitoring and evaluation of the said cases. The zones are: Zone A, Abuja FCT, Zone B, Northern Zone and Zone C, Southern Zone.
“Chief Judges of state divisions, who were yet to submit the list of the alleged corruption cases to the committee, are also being reminded to do so without delay.
“The committee directed its secretary, Gambo Saleh, who is also the council’s (NJC’s) secretary, to write the defaulting CJs.
“At the last count, Zone A in Abuja has 554 pending alleged cases, Zone B has 347 cases, with Zone C having 1, 405 cases.
“The committee, after brainstorming on all the pending alleged corruption and financial crime cases submitted to it by the heads of courts that had complied, indicated that a new Practice Direction would be issued to judges handling the said cases.
“The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, GCON, had directed the heads of courts to designate courts and judges that will solely handle the on-going trials on daily basis; to fast-track all the pending alleged corruption cases.
“The Practice Directions sub-committee has commenced a review of various practice directions by leveraging on both local and foreign comparative jurisdictions to meet global best practice.”
