Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar has identified that the persistence use of the ‘holding charge’ by the police to detain awaiting trial suspects is a major contributor to the high number of cases pending in the court.

CEOAFRICA gathered according to the statement by Justice Mukhtar that police arraign suspects in court before looking for evidence to prosecute them.

Justice Mukhtar made this observation in Abuja at a special court session to mark the beginning of the 2013/2014 Legal Year, in which 17 new Senior Advocates of Nigeria were sworn in.

She identified the practice as one of the reasons for undue delay in the criminal justice administration system in the country.

Mallam Yusuf Alli (SAN) commenting on the issue, said that the CJN is only calling attention to the error, emphasizing that ordinarily, people are not to be arraigned without a strong evidence.

He further asserted that one can only be arraigned when a strong lead is established and not the other way round, stressing that it constitutes the problems with criminal procedure code.