BEVERLY HILLS, October 17, (THEWILL) – The Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), led by Prof Itse Sagay, has recommended plea bargaining as an alternative means of settling corruption cases.
According to the committee, in the presentation of its report to the media in Abuja, not all criminal cases should be prosecuted to finality with the production of a manual on plea bargaining to guide prosecutors handling corruption cases and serve as a guide to all presiding judges who are presented with plea bargain agreements.
“This manual is a guide to the decision making process when considering alternative means of disposing of criminal allegations and plea-bargaining,” the committee said.
“Although not every criminal case should be prosecuted to finality through full trial if it can be resolved by alternative means, the manual mandates custodial sentence as part of the sentence no matter how short.
“The aim of plea-bargaining is usually for the defendant to enter into an arrangement or plead guilty in exchange for concessions by the prosecution, which may take the form of the offer of a plea by the defendant to some of the charges, a different offence or less serious charge or to one of multiple charges.
“The guidelines are to ensure that decisions on alternative means of disposing a case are taken with integrity, accountability, credibility and transparency embedded in them.
“As of July 31, 2016, PACAC had received 50 petitions from various petitioners.
“The petitions cover a myriad of corruption-related issues, including alleged cases of fraud, misappropriation of funds, unlawful dismissals, etc.
“Some of the petitions also allege that the anti-corruption agencies are complicit or failed to act appropriately. All the petitions have been reviewed and most of them have been sent to relevant agencies for action, if so required.”
Speaking at the event, Bolaji Owasanoye, Executive Secretary of the Committee, explained that plea bargaining did not mean that persons charged with corruption offences would not be prosecuted adding that the Department of State Security (DSS) did not err in law by arresting some judges on allegations of corruption because there was no law conferring immunity on judges.
“There is no law anywhere that says judges cannot be arrested,” he said.
“Let’s remove sentiments. In these instances, they (DSS) followed the law. Judges can be arrested.
“Take Saraki for example, he is the number 3 citizen and he is having is day in court; how can you say judges cannot be arrested?
“Cases are delayed because defence lawyers don’t want them to continue, and unfortunately the court is tolerating them.
“Cross-examination has been going on for three months in Saraki’s case at CCT. What this shows is that if you steal enough, you can freeze the system. We are not saying people must go to jail; we are saying let the law work.”
Story by Oputah David
