The Chief Judge (CJ) of Nasarawa
State, Justice Suleiman Dikko, on Tuesday said that only the high courts were
competent to handle rape cases in the state. Dikko said this at Wamba Prison in
Wamba Local Government Area (LGA) of the state during the continuation of his
four-day-working tour of prisons across the state.
He, therefore, ordered the area courts’ judges and
magistrates to, immediately, reassign rape cases before them to high courts for
lack of jurisdiction. The chief judge also said that area courts should ,
henceforth, reject new cases of rape brought to them by the police explaining
that, “it is only the high courts that are empowered to handle such cases”.
According to him, “apart from cases
of rape, we had since 2013, ordered lower court judges in the state to reject
robbery and culpable homicide cases’’. He attributed the delay in justice
administration in the state to the action and inaction of some stakeholders in
the judicial system.
“Some stakeholders, such as the
police, go ahead to assign rape, robbery and culpable homicide cases to lower
courts knowing well that such courts do not have jurisdiction over such matters.
“So for the purpose of ensuring
speedy administration in the state, I have ordered all judges of lower courts
to reject such cases. “All these measures are to decongest the prisons,
avoid delay in the justice delivery and make sure that cases are assigned to
the appropriate courts,” he said.
He added that the purpose of his
visit was to ensure that inmates wrongly sent to prisons were set free in
accordance with the relevant laws.
The chief judge also ordered the welfare department of every prison to get the cell phone numbers of inmates already granted bail but who were still in prison to contact their family members.
The chief judge also ordered the welfare department of every prison to get the cell phone numbers of inmates already granted bail but who were still in prison to contact their family members.
Dikko, therefore, urged the police,
prisons’ authorities and other stakeholders to rise up to their
responsibilities to sanitise the system and ensure speedy administration of
justice in the state. He also advised inmates awaiting trial but had been in
remand for many years for lack of fund to engage the services of a counsel.
Members of the Human Rights Commission in the state; officials of the Legal Aid
Council of Nigeria, judges and private lawyers accompanied the chief judge on
the visit.
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