The Corruption and Financial Crimes Cases Trial Monitoring Committee inaugurated by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnogen, about six and half months ago has submitted its interim report to the National Judicial Council . It lamented the delays being suffered by corruption and financial crimes cases.
In a statement by its Director of Information, Mr . Soji Oye , on Sunday , the NJC said the interim report of COTRIMCO blamed the prosecution , the courts and prisons for the delays .
Oye said the committee ’s interim report contained “ findings from discussions with heads of courts and observations made from the surprise visits of the members to courts handling corruption and financial crimes cases in some parts of country .”
The CJN, in his capacity as the chairman of the NJC, inaugurated the Justice Suleiman Galadima - led COTRIMCO on November 1 , 2017 mandating it to, among others, identify the causes of delays in corruption and financial crimes cases and recommend solutions.
As of November 26, 2017 , NJC said COTRIMCO had received the details of 2 , 306 ongoing cases which fell under the committee ’s mandate .
The committee ’s interim report blamed all the stakeholders including the courts handling the trials and the agencies prosecuting them as the causes of the delays in the trials.
But the prosecution was apportioned the bulk of the blames .
According to the committee, the prosecution is responsible for the delays in many ways including , lack of requisite experience and competence, reliance on irrelevant documentary evidence, multiplicity of charges , collusion of prosecutors with defence lawyers , non-adherence to court rules \procedures and amendment of charges after commencement of trial,
Oye said , “The Corruption and Financial Crime Cases Trial Monitoring Committee has identified poor prosecution , absence of counsel for parties in court , reliance on irrelevant documentary evidence, multiplicity of charges , non- adherence to court rules \procedures, retirement\transfer of Judges , re - assignment of cases to start de novo , amendment to charges after commencement of trial, and cumbersome record transmission process to Court of Appeal amongst others as some of the factors militating against speedy disposal of corruption cases .
“ These facts are contained in the interim report presented by the Chairman of the Committee, Retired Hon. Justice Suleiman Galadima ( CFR ) , at the 86th meeting of the National Judicial Council .
“The committee distilled the issues from its findings from discussions with Heads of courts and observations made from the surprise visits of the members to courts handling corruption and financial crimes cases in some parts of the country .”
Elements of poor prosecution , according to COTRIMCO are, “ offenders are charged to court before proper investigations of the charges are done , and afterwards , expecting the court to detain such alleged offenders till conclusion of their investigations ; inadequate prosecuting personnel at the prosecution agencies ; and that some prosecutors lack the requisite experience to prosecute corruption cases , which invariably leads to poor handling of such cases .”
The committee also said it identified “ lack of commitment on the part of some prosecutors and collusion between them and defence counsel to pervert justice either by stalling the trial of cases or achieving pre- determined results ; and that there is no threshold to the number of witnesses the prosecution calls .”
It also said there were the issues of “ inadequate funding of prosecution agencies to carry out thorough investigations into the corruption cases with attendant low quality prosecution cases ; and frequent requests for adjournment by the prosecutors.”
On issue of duplication of cases , the committee submitted that “the prosecution in most cases duplicate charges which could be up to 170 against a defendant, but at the end, are unable to substantiate them , leading to the discharge of such defendant.”
The committee was also said to have “ observed the issue of multiplicity of cases involving the same defendants, and on similar subject matters going on in different courts at the same time .”
On the contributions of courts to the delays , COTRIMCO was said to have identified “ retirement\transfer of judges handling such cases ” as a major factor .
“ When this happens, such cases which may have gone far are re - assigned to another judge to start de - novo ( afresh) ,” Oye quoted the committee as stating .
It blamed the courts for , among others, “ granting of remand order by a court without following up to ensure suspects are brought to court; and inadequate provision for proper record keeping and shelving of court files and other relevant documents in some courts.”
The rest of the court’s contributions to the problem according to the committee are “cumbersome process of transmission of records from trial courts which impedes the early disposal of appeals; and difficulties associated with ascertaining addresses for service of process by bailiffs.”
The committee only blamed the prisons for “ failing to remind court of subsisting order to reproduce suspects in court and most times lack means to convey suspects to the law court .”
As part of the solutions to the problem , the committee recommended among others proper funding of the judiciary and the prosecution agencies as well as use of professionals , such as accountants, auditors, e .t .c ., to investigate high profile and complicated cases .
It also recommended “ proper training for prosecution in the area of investigation , especially in the area of Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015; need for prosecuting agencies to have competent prosecution departments manned by qualified personnel ; synergy between the various prosecution agencies to enhance proper prosecution of criminal cases ; and need for training and re -training of staff of court handling criminal cases .”’


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