Abuja - Human right lawyer, Femi Falana, on Tuesday in Abuja, called
for a revolutionary approach toward sanitising the prison system in the
country.
Falana made the call at the ongoing Centenary Law Summit with the theme “Law and Society: 100 Years of Legal Development in Nigeria’’.
The Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) organised the summit in collaboration with the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Falana said that Nigerian prisons needed an overhaul and decried the irregularities in the prison system.
He alleged that some lawyers were engaged in practices that subjected only the poor to punishment.
“The situation in Nigeria calls for a revolutionary approach and not a reform. We have a prison system where the poor are taken to jail regularly.
“The rich, however, have access to good lawyers that frustrate trials so that they will not go to jail and where they go to jail they go into plea bargain for soft landing,’’ he said.
He urged NIALS to ensure the implementation of resolutions reached at the end of the summit, saying: “Nigerians are fond of holding seminars and workshops and wait till another seminar without implementation’’.
On his part, Mr OCJ Okocha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), called for a full practice of the federal system of government, which gave states some level of power to execute certain projects.
Okocha, a former NBA President, also called for the establishment of the divisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal in the states in order to make adjudication of cases faster and easier.
“The exclusive list is too wide and some of the things should be designated to states.
“A division of the Federal High Court should be in all states of the federation. The Court of Appeal should also have divisions in all the states,’’ he said. (NAN)
Falana made the call at the ongoing Centenary Law Summit with the theme “Law and Society: 100 Years of Legal Development in Nigeria’’.
The Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) organised the summit in collaboration with the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Falana said that Nigerian prisons needed an overhaul and decried the irregularities in the prison system.
He alleged that some lawyers were engaged in practices that subjected only the poor to punishment.
“The situation in Nigeria calls for a revolutionary approach and not a reform. We have a prison system where the poor are taken to jail regularly.
“The rich, however, have access to good lawyers that frustrate trials so that they will not go to jail and where they go to jail they go into plea bargain for soft landing,’’ he said.
He urged NIALS to ensure the implementation of resolutions reached at the end of the summit, saying: “Nigerians are fond of holding seminars and workshops and wait till another seminar without implementation’’.
On his part, Mr OCJ Okocha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), called for a full practice of the federal system of government, which gave states some level of power to execute certain projects.
Okocha, a former NBA President, also called for the establishment of the divisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal in the states in order to make adjudication of cases faster and easier.
“The exclusive list is too wide and some of the things should be designated to states.
“A division of the Federal High Court should be in all states of the federation. The Court of Appeal should also have divisions in all the states,’’ he said. (NAN)
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