By Okechukwu Onuegbu
The failure of Anambra state police command to provide evidence of availability of a Criminal Records Registry has created concerns among lawyers and prosecutors in the state.
The records, a statutory provision of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA 2015), is supposed to be domiciled within the central criminal records registry, however, investigations by this newspaper has proved that such does not exist in Anambra.
The experiences of two lawyers practising in the state sums up the frustration and legal cost the non-availability of the record is causing.
“There had been instances where ex-convicts claim they have no criminal records. This is usually because there is no data anywhere for a prosecutor or court to fault their claims,” a lawyer, Ifeoma Okafor, said.
“I have seen a convict running for office in his community’s town union. But I won’t mention his name or location because I don’t have records of his criminal antecedent either. But I remember there was a time he was in prison for some months,” she added.
Another lawyer, Maxwell Udechukwu, frustrated by the situation recounted one of his experiences when the police was unable to present the record.
“I have witnessed two convictions; in one of them, the court convicted the person and adjourned for sentencing. On the day of sentencing, the matter was called on. Allocutus was applied for. After that, prosecuting counsel was asked if he had anything against the allocutus applied,” he said.
In criminal trials, Allocutus is a plea made in order to mitigate the sentence or punishment on an accused person.
"And one of the things required a prosecuting counsel to put forward is whether there is any previous criminal records of the cases. They said no. Like I told you, they did not say that ‘no' because they have verified. But because the information within them did not show any. So, they wouldn’t have said ‘yes there was'. Because if you make such statement, the court will ask you to tender the records," Udechukwu added.
The law
Section 16 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA 2015) provided that “There shall be established at the Nigeria Police force a Central Criminal records registry.
“(2) For the purposes 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 records registry.
“(3) The state or Federal capital territory police command shall ensure that the decision of the court in all Criminal trials are transmitted to the Central Criminal Records Registry within 30 days of the judgement.”
Generally, the provisions for establishment of Criminal Records Registry is in line with Nigeria Evidence Act (2011). Also, Part IV (81) of Evidence Act (2011) provides that in Criminal cases, evidence of good character is admissible. “In criminal proceedings, evidence of the fact that a defendant is of good character admissible.”
Importance of the record - experts
A lawyer, George Enekwechi explained that the Police at Force Headquarters Abuja, and 36 States and FCT police commands ought to have Central Criminal Records Registry and Criminal Records Registry as provided by law in order to keep records of all arrest, all trials, all criminal judgments of courts at states and federal capital territory.
“The essence is to ensure that we have a record, a compendium of criminal records of individuals, because many a time, in court a person is tried and convicted. Next time, same persons goes through another trial, where he could say he had no criminal record, but these are habitual criminals. But if you have these central records or records kept at the state headquarters, it will be easy for people to access the criminal records of persons in Nigeria.
“For instance, in 2003, there was challenge over James Ibori been a convict and not been a convict. The question was which James Ibori was involved. Because there was no such criminal records, it was not clear who was James Ibori that was convicted. If there were such records, such doubts would not exist.”
Another lawyer, Maxwell Udechukwu, cautioned on the differences between crime records and crime diary.
“Crime Diary is a document or a book used in recording all the reported crime within the jurisdiction of that particular Police Division within a given time. I presume that it is a collection of the various crime Diary from these police divisions that will now be used in building what is called Criminal Records Registry,” he stated.
He further explained that a reported crime if not investigated and the person charged to court and convicted in accordance with the law, cannot officially form a Criminal Record Registry. According to him, “If someone is reported of stealing it will enter crime dairy, but if after investigation, police did not find evidence to go to court, it may not be in criminal records. But if they go to court and at the end of the day the person is not found guilty, it will not be there."
Adding his voice, a high-ranking police personnel in Onistha, who craved anonymity because he is not authorised to speak on the issue harps on the importance of the record.
“It will help the members of the society to conform to the norms and values of the society because such records can affect their political participations, employment and relationship with the society. Our constitution says before one can contest for any political office, he should not have criminal dents,” he said.
Mr Emma Osunkwo of Anambra State Ministry of Justice summed up thus, "What it means is that information about every person who is in court for trial is readily available for the public to access. With that, you will find out the conclusion of that trial. Did it end in conviction? Did it end in discharge and acquittal? That will enable the prosecutor to handle this issue."
Police fail to provide record
On July 30, this reporter requested an interview with the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Haruna Muhammed. He declined official interview and asked the reporter to write the state police commissioner to ask anything about the record.
On August 1st, Blueprint drafted a letter in compliance with section 7 of freedom of Information Act. The letter was delivered to the state police commissioner's office on August 5th. The paper demanded for number of criminal cases in the state including decisions of the court on the number of cases transmitted to the court, a breakdown of the record in gender, conviction status, investigation status, age, nature of crime committed and duration.
The paper asked that the information should be sent either through email or by hands through its Anambra state correspondent (this reporter). But officials from the state police command contacted the Managing Editor of Blueprint newspaper, Mr Clem Oluwole, whose signatory is on the letter and requested for a meeting.
On August 14, this reporter honoured the invitation but instead of providing him the necessary information, the police told him to write DIG Research and Planning, Force Headquarters, Abuja. An official told this reporter that it was only the DIG can authorise or release the information.
On 21 August, the reporter wrote to the Police DIG in charge of Research and Planning as ordered to. The letter together with attached copies of the one sent to Anambra state police command was sent to Abuja through DHL, a courier company, Nigeria Awka office with a tracking code 2333776933.
On August 26th when it was tracked on the DHL website using the above code, it read “Recipient refused delivery.” On inquiry, the DHL customer service told our reporter that one Abdul in the office of Police DIG Research and Planning said they won’t collect the document because they were not expecting any document from courier.
No record in police stations visited
This reporter visited some police stations across the state including the Anambra state police headquarters and State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department at Amawbia, Awka South LGA both as a journalist and a researcher.
The visitations which spanned weeks was to ascertain if the divisions and headquarters have criminal records registries.
On August 1, this reporter visited Divisional Police Office in Fegge, Onitsha to inquire on the existence of the record. A police officer who attended to him said there was nothing of such due to lack of budgetary allocations.
Same day, in the afternoon, this reporter went to Central Police stations at Inland Town Onistha. Here, the officer on duty directed all enquiries about Criminal Records Registry to Police CID Amawbia.
On similar mission on August 3rd, a ranking police officer at at Nnewi Division said the Criminal Records Registry, which this reporter sought, was not in existence, even at Awka. He described the provision as one of aspect of Nigerian laws yet to be implemented.
On August 7, this reporter disguised as a researcher visited the state CID. On explanation, to the officer that attended to him, that he was a researcher and needed data on criminal record for his work, he was advised to repeat his visit later in the day so as to meet with legal department of the place.
Returning at 2.5p.m., the researcher met a police officer at Legal Department, who he told he was searching for some cases of criminal suspects who had 'lied' they had no criminal records only to be faulted by data generated from Criminal Records Registry.
The officer told him there is nothing like Criminal Records Registry in the state. The officer added that such records can only be found among different prosecutors, and directed him to a Police Prosecutor, who told him he can only release such information to him if he gets approval from Assistant Police Commissioner. Unfortunately, this reporter could not secure the approval even after another visit two days later.
The Assistant Commissioner told this reporter to seek such information from the courts.
The story was the same at Otuocha Police Division when this reporter visited on August 12, Umunze Division on August 13 and the ‘B’ Division of Nigerian Police, Awka he visited on August 15.
Record keeping impracticable – Police officer
Blueprint downloaded the copies of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 Federal Government budgets from budgetoffice.gov.ng to ascertain if provisions were made for record keeping. However, none of the five Appropriation Acts mentioned or provided for Criminal Records Registry.
A Divisional Police Officer, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has a duty to make it work by capturing all Nigerians on its data base so as to make it possible for the police to add Criminal Records of every individual band further store them on Criminal Records Registry.
“We don’t have such data in Nigeria. These data ought to be stored on internet and available for the public to access and should be secured against hackers. Unfortunately, the way it is practice in police today is that once someone is convicted of crime, we send it through return (manually) from divisions to state level, and from state level to national.
“The bureaucratic bottle neck is too much that as it passes through different processes to the state or national, the information get corrupted or hard to access. You need to go to our Force CID to see our records. If this thing is done by computer, anyone can access it by clicking a button.
“We send normal returns of suspects arrested, tried, convicted and so on through manual. Since is manual, it is time consuming if you calculate the heap of papers. How would you go and be removing and replacing this inbox to access this information? The papers are too much to be accessed.”
How to make record keeping work - Experts
Speaking on importance of Criminal Records Registry, Mr Emma Osunkwo, the Acting Director of Public Procurement (DPP), Anambra State Ministry of Justice, disclosed that it was useful at time of allocutus which is when defendants are been given opportunity to apply for a leniency.
He painted a scenario where such record plays huge role.
“The lawyer will stand up and beg the court to temper justice with mercy that the respondent is a first term offender; he will plead that he has children, surviving parents and others he is taking care of, and urge court to reduce the sentence or give option of fine.
“This will register in the mind of the court that this person is committing crime for the first time. The prosecutor would be asked if he has anything to say. He will tell the court that he has no criminal antecedents of the defendant because he doesn’t have any record. But if there is, he can tell the court the person has committed similar offence in the past or any other offence.
“The court will know he has no good character. So, the question of the judge reducing the sentence will not arrive. Giving him alternative fine may not be there. But we hardly have that record. It may be contained in an amended Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Anambra state which is currently under review.”
The immediate past Chairperson, Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA), Anambra state chapter, Mrs Chineze Obianyo, said the Anambra State Justice Sector Reform Team was reviewing the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL 2010) to ensure that every aspect of the ACJA including Criminal Records Registry were captured in the new law.
This investigative report was supported by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ).
Tags
Crime news