DATA AND CRIMINAL RECORDS KEEPING UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2015 A PAPER PRESENTED TO THE COMMISSION BY E. C. OTTI ESQ. PROSECUTION DEPARTMENT, ICPC AT THE AUDITORIUM, ICPC HEADQUARTERS, ABUJA 30 TH OCTOBER 2015

INTRODUCTION  For every law made there is a purpose, in other words there must be a mischief to be cured by the law. The Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 is intended to cure a lot of mischief noticed in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria which has led to delays and miscarriage of justice in criminal trials in Nigeria.  The aspect we shall be looking at in this paper has to do with Data and Records Keeping. Proper keeping of criminal records will go a long way towards ensuring justice and sanity in our judicial system as against the poor or lack of criminal records in Nigeria today. A typical example is the situation in the case of identity of the person of James Ibori who was said to have once been convicted of a criminal office at Bwari area court. Similarly the case of Evan and Evans Enwerem.  The ACJA 2015 has made a provisions to cure the mischief that led to a setback in the identification of the accused person who was said to be an ex-convict but there were no proper records to establish that fact.

TAKING OF CRIMINAL RECORDS OF SUSPECTS S.15(1) Where a suspect is arrested, whether with or without a warrant, and taken to a police station or any other agency effecting the arrest, the police officer making the arrest or the officer in charge shall cause to be taken immediately, in the prescribed form, the following records of the suspect arrested: (a) the alleged offence; (b) the date and circumstances of his arrest; (c) his full name, occupation and residential address; and (d) for the purpose of identification: (i)his height, (ii)his photograph, (iii)his full fingerprint impressions, or (iv)such other means of his identification.

ESTABLISHMENT OF CENTRAL CRIMINAL RECORDS S.16(1) There shall be established at the Nigeria Police Force a Central Criminal Records Registry. (2) For the purpose of subsection (1) of this section, there shall be established at every state police command a Criminal Records Registry which shall keep and transmit all such records to the Central Criminal Record Registry. (3)The state or Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command shall ensure that the decisions of the court in all criminal trials are transmitted to the Central Criminal Records Registry within 30 days of the judgments

ESTABLISHMENT OF CENTRAL CRIMINAL RECORDS Cont. Section 16 (1) of ACJA 2015 ICPC is to establish a Central Criminal Records Registry at the ICPC Headquarters. subsection (2), ICPC state offices shall as well establish their own central Criminal Records Registry from where they will be transmitting to the Central Criminal Records Registry in the Headquarters. Further to subsection (2) every department and unit of investigation at the Headquarter of ICPC should have their own Central Criminal Records from where they shall be transmitting to the Central Criminal Records Registry of ICPC. Subsection (3), the Prosecution Department both at the Headquarters and state offices should have their own Central Criminal Records Registry and update Central Criminal Records Registry of ICPC within 30 days. Further to subsection (3) of the ACJA Act, the Prosecution Department of the Commission is required to transmit to the Central Criminal Records Registry of the Commission decisions of the court in all criminal trials within 30 days of the judgments.

REMITANCE OF CRIMINAL RECORDS Section 29(1-5) of the ACJA 2015 provided as follows: (1) The Inspector-General of Police and the head of every agency authorized by law to make arrests shall remit quarterly to the Attorney-General of the Federation a record of all arrests made with or without warrant in relation to federal offences within Nigeria. (2) The Commissioner of Police in a State and head of every agency authorized by law to make arrest within a State shall remit quarterly to the Attorney-General of that State a record of all arrests made with or without warrant in relation to State offences or arrests within the State. (3) The report shall contain the full particulars of arrested suspects as prescribed by section 15 of this Act.

REMITANCE OF CRIMINAL RECORDS cont. 4. A register of arrests containing the particulars prescribed in section 15 of this Act shall be kept in the prescribed form at every police station or agency authorized by law to make arrest, and every arrest, whether made with or without warrant, within the local limits of the police station or agency, or within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, shall be entered accordingly by the officer in charge of the police station or official in charge of the agency as soon as the arrested suspect is brought to the station or agency. 5. The Attorney-General of the Federation shall establish an electronic and manual database of all records of arrests at the Federation and State level.

REMITANCE OF CRIMINAL RECORDS Cont. Further to the above Section 33(1-6) also provided as follows: (1) An officer in charge of a police station or an official in charge of an agency authorized to make arrest shall, on the last working day of every month, report to the nearest Magistrate the cases of all suspects arrested without warrant within the limits of their respective stations or agency whether the suspects have been admitted to bail or not. (2) The report shall contain the particulars of the suspects arrested as prescribed in section 15 of this Act. (3) The Magistrate shall on receipt of the reports, forward them to the Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee which shall analyze the reports and advise the Attorney-General of the Federation as to the trends of arrests, bail and related matters. (4) The Attorney-General of the Federation shall, upon request by the National Human Rights Commission, the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria or a Non-Governmental Organization, make the report available to them.

REMITANCE OF CRIMINAL RECORDS Cont. 5. Where no report is made in accordance with subsection (1) of this section, the Magistrate shall forward a report to the Chief Judge of the State and the Attorney- General of the State for appropriate remedial action. 6. With respect to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja such report referred to in subsection (5) of this section shall be forwarded to the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and the Attorney-General of the Federation for remedial action.

REMITANCE OF CRIMINAL RECORDS FROM PRISONS Section 111(1) The Comptroller-General of Prisons shall make returns every 90 days to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, the President of the National Industrial Court, the Chief Judge of the State in which the prison is situated and to the Attorney-General of the Federation of all persons awaiting trial held in custody in Nigerian prisons for a period beyond 180 days from the date of arraignment. (2)The returns referred to in subsection (1) of this section shall be in a prescribed form and shall include: (a) the name of the suspect held in custody or Awaiting Trial Person; (b) passport photograph of the suspect; (c) the date of his arraignment or remand; (d) the date of his admission to custody; (e) the particulars of the offence with which he was charged; (f) the courts before which he was arraigned; (g) name of the prosecuting agency; and (h) any other relevant information.

CONCLUSION  The strict adherence with the provisions of ACJA 2015 with respect to Data and Criminal Records keeping will cure the mischief occasioned by lack of records in our judicial system and case management. The presidency or the Commission will not have any need to send circulars for the vetting of any prospective appointee of the Federal Government as a touch at one button at the Central Criminal Records Registry of ICPC or at the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation will answer the question.  The courts could also easily verify whether an accused before them is a first offender or not from the Central Criminal Records. The keeping of a Central Criminal Records in ICPC will also be in conformity with the Strategic Action Plan of the Commission.

THANK YOU.