Cleen Foundation, a non-government organisation, has called for the creation of a criminal division of courts to engender speedy and effective trails of criminal related offences in compliance with Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).

Mr Sulyman Dawodu, Secretary of the ACJA monitoring committee of the foundation, made the call on Monday in Abuja at the foundations 4th ACJA working group meeting.

Dawodu said that the creation of the division in courts from the existing court structure would enhance specialisation, proper channelling of resources, speedy and efficient administration of justice.

“A creation or designation of criminal division of the court would fast track criminal cases and decongest the prisons and the correctional system,’’ he said.

“The division when created would also achieve supervisory and oversight functions and also reinvigorate the process of preliminary investigations,’’ he said.

Dawodu urged all law enforcement agencies to recognise the need to comply with the ACJA and other international conventions on the best practises of custody management.

He said that the criminal division of the court would also help in the implementation of effective custody management in the correctional services when created.

“Adoption of custody record in all law enforcement agencies detention facilities must be complied with in order to reduce excess detention time of detainees.

“Law enforcement agencies must be transparent and accountable with their custody records showing time bounds, date, time of arrest and other records of offense.

“Practices of administrative bails must be adhered to and thorough processes of investigation and interview should be followed as provided by the law as against interrogations and confessions methods,’’ he said.

He, however, said that if interrogations and confession must be done, they should be done following the guidelines and detainees should not be deprived of administrative bail rights or legal services.

He called for closure on gaps at the prosecutory stages, saying that prosecutors and investigators must be professionals from a prosecution department who would focus strictly on criminal cases in courts.

Dawodu said that if all the provisions in the ACJA were carefully implemented, persons would not be subject to the radicalisation that took place within the walls of the prison.

Mr Benson Olugbuo, Executive Director of the foundation, lauded the efforts of the working group on its efforts in advocating for the implementation of the ACJA law in Nigeria.

“We laud these project working groups both at the state and national level for the robust inputs in the implementation of the ACJA which principally seeks to monitor cases of corruption in relation to ACJA,’’ he said.

He also lauded the new federal legislation that brought fundamental changes to the criminal justice system, saying the law would fast track delivery of justice, efficient management of criminal justice institutions and protect citizens and the interest of suspects, defendants and victims.

He called other development partners to contribute towards the effective and satisfactory justice delivery within the criminal justice sector.

According to him, the intellectual contributions of development partners would not only beam the light on progresses made in the implementation of the ACJA, but identify gaps and workable solutions to breach the gaps.