The document provides a summary of findings from a field survey conducted by Access to Justice on the level of compliance with Lagos State's Administration of Criminal Justice Law of 2011. Key findings include: 1) There is low awareness of the law's provisions, with only 29% of police officers familiar with it. 2) Little change has occurred in arrest practices and procedures. Police do not notify magistrates of arrests as required. 3) Provisions around bail, pre-trial detention, and confessional statements remain unenforced. 4) Non-custodial sentencing is underutilized. The reforms have not achieved their goals due to lack of implementation by law enforcement. Recommendations include training and awareness campaigns

1. Public PresentationOf Findings Of A FieldSurvey On The State Of Compliance
With The Lagos State
On behalf of the AccesstoJustice,Iwarmlywelcome youall tothispublicpresentationof findings of
our fieldresearchonthe state of compliance with the LagosState Administration of Criminal Justice
Law, 2011.
With a view to enhancing better respect for the rights of citizens by the police in the law
enforcement process, as well as ensuring speedier dispensation of criminal justice, Lagos State
passed a new Administration of Criminal Justice Law in 2011 which was intended to repeal and
replace the oldCriminal Procedure Law of Lagos State, 2004. Some of the daunting problems within
the administration of criminal justice which the new law sought to regulate include
The hauling of crime suspects into court before investigations.
 The excessive timetakentoconclude crime investigationsandconsequential remandof suspects
pending conclusion of investigation or trial;
 The weakrecords-keepingsystemsfromwhichcasesbeingtriedaccidentallybutoccasionallyslip
out into oblivion, and
 Poor judicial oversight over “remand” detention leading to prolonged pre-trial or under-trial
imprisonment of criminal defendant.
 The practice of extractingconfessional statements from crime suspects by means of torture and
other oppressive methods of interrogation
The reformsinitiatedbythe newlaw,the Administrationof Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, 2011
(otherwise referred to as “ACJL”) include:
 The provision of substantial safeguards against the use of torture by the police in the
interrogationprocess, byrequiringthatconfessionalstatements by crime suspects must only be
admissibleinevidence if theywere video-recordedor taken in the presence of counsel (lawyer)
to the accused person.
 The creationof an oversightsystem(runandregulatedby magistrates) for remand detention to
insure that persons on remand are not, by some default, remain on prolonged and seemingly
interminable incarceration.
 The codification of the rights of the crime suspect to remain silent at police interrogation until
after consultation with his counsel -- commonly referred to as the “Miranda” rights and

2.  The liberalizingof sentencingorpunishmenttoinclude non-custodialsentencinglike community
services.
These reformswere expected,amongother things, to ease prison congestion, end the abuse of the
remandsystem,improve the delivery of criminal justice services by the courts, enhance capacity of
lawenforcementofficialstoact responsibly,accountablyandprofessionally,aswell as ensure better
safeguards for the rights of persons who are processed through criminal justice system.
Access to Justice with the support of DFID funded J4A Programme conducted a three (3) months
research, from May 2013 to July 2013, to ascertain the level of awareness, compliance,
implementation and enforcement of the ACJ by law enforcement officials – i.e the Police and the
Magistrates. The overriding objective of the research is to bridge the gaps militating against the
understandingandeffective implementationof the reformsthroughidentificationof impedimentsto
the implementation of the Law and preferring recommendations that can plug these gaps. This
presentation highlights key findings of the research.
The Findings
The study revealsthataftersix yearsfromthe time the reformchangeswere firstenactedintolaw in
2007, and two years after the more recent amendments to the Administration of Criminal Justice
Law of 2011,the creative push for reform in Lagos State and the lofty goals and the outcomes
envisaged by the legislation have not been achieved till this time. Our research validates the
experience of many:notmuchhas changedwithinpolice institutionsandeveninthe courtssince the
introductionof ACJ law. Notable amongst the causes for this set-back is the pervasive ignorance of
relevantprovisionsof thisnewlawbyinstitutions directly obligated by the laws – the police (or law
enforcementagencies).FromAJ’sfindings,only29% of police officersinLagosState are familiar with
the ACJ Law 2011 (as amended) or have received any formal training on the provisions of the Law.
Specifically, our findings show that:
Over-sighting Police Detention
Little change hasoccurred with regard to reforms relating to arrest practices and procedures by law
enforcementgroups.Magistratesunanimously report that the police do not usually inform them of
cases of persons who are arrested and kept in police custody without being offered bail, or of
personswhoare arrestedwithoutawarrant and are detainedwithout any charges brought to court.
Corroborating this, 92% of police officers interviewed indicated that they do not notify district
magistratesof casesof personsarrested.Indeed,70% of the police officersinterviewedreportedthat
theyare notaware of thisrequirementof the law. 40% of the police officersaddedthatthere are no
existingtemplatesor forms provided in the Law which can serve as a guide for such notifications to
guide them in fulfilling this requirement.

3. Regulating Arrest Practices and Procedures
The research establishes that little change has occurred with regard to reforms relating to arrest
practicesand proceduresbylawenforcementgroups. The law providesthatuponarrestthere should
be notification of the cause of arrest. However 65% of police officers reported that they usually
informsuspectsof the cause of arrest only at the point of detention after the suspect arrives at the
police station.96%of sampledinmatesand92% of the sampledlawyersreportedthatpolice officers
do not inform arrested persons of their rights to apply for bail or free legal representation as
required by the law nor do police officers provide any facilities for arrested persons to obtain such
services
Bail Procedures
The findingsindicate thatthere have beennoreal improvementsinthe practice of bail in Lagos State
since the commencement of the ACJ Law. 75% of the lawyers and 89% of the prison inmates
interviewedstatedthatthe police donotrelease detainedsuspects on bail where it is impractical to
bring such suspects to court within 24 hours. Still in connection with bail, 9% of police officers
interviewedstill maintainthe practice of notacceptingwomenassuretieswhen granting police bail.
Pre-trial Detention and Speedy Trial
Sadly, much unjustified time continues to be wasted between the filing of information or charges
against suspects and the eventual trial of such suspects who are typically left to languish under
gruelingdetentionorprisonconditions.55% of lawyersreport that many of the magistrates in Lagos
State do not comply with the oversight safeguards enshrined in the ACJ Law concerning sixty days
adjournments with respect to persons detained under remand orders. The failure to exercise
adequate oversightoverremanddetentionshasalsonegativelyimpactedprisondemographics.As at
the time of this research, the Medium Prison, Kirikiri with a capacity of 1, 700 inmates, held 2,592
inmates out of which 2, 437 were awaiting trial inmates otherwise termed as remand prisoners.
Similarly the Medium Prison, Badagry with a total capacity of 160 inmates, is home to 509 inmates
out of which 204 were remand prisoners. Finally, the Medium Prison Ikoyi, with an 800 inmate
capacity, houses 1847 inmates, out of which 1, 709 were remand prisoners.
Taking Confessional Statements
Provisions relating to the taking of confessional statements of suspects have remained grossly
ignoredbythe police andunenforcedbymagistrates.Besides safeguarding the constitutional rights
of suspects,these provisionscouldalsohave eased concerns over the voluntariness of confessional
statements and reduced the frequency of attacks on those statements. Virtually all those
interviewed – police officers, prison inmates and Lawyers were all nearly unanimous in saying that
police officers do not make video recordings when obtaining statements from arrested persons,

4. neither do they alternatively make sure that a lawyer is present first before embarking on an
interrogation or obtaining a statement from an arrested person.
Non-Custodial Sentencing
The perennial problem of prison congestion is no doubt worsened by the discernible failure of
magistrates to embrace forms of non-custodial sentencing as an alternative to imprisonment
provided under the Law. 82% of Magistrates reports that they employ community sentence orders
for only the most minor offences – such as the theft of mobile phones - particularly where stolen
items have been recovered, or traffic or environmental offences. However, 18% of magistrates
reportedthatdue to the challengesof enforcement, they do not make community service orders at
all but would rather impose fines on persons convicted of minor offences or first time offenders.
CONCLUSION
Have the reforms introduced by Lagos State changed the landscape of criminal justice
administration?The answeratthistime isno: theyhave not.Notbecause theylackthe powerto,not
because they come short in any known respects but because they have mostly been ignored or are
yet to be taken seriously by those whom they bind. The basic inference, from this research, is that
lawenforcementinstitutionsinLagosState have fallenshortinimplementingthe reformsintroduced
by the ACJ law. This will need to change for the reforms to stand a chance of achieving its goals or
producing some impact in the State.
Our recommendations therefore include creating more awareness about the provisions of the law
and providing training on the reforms brought about the law amongst principal stakeholders,
particularly amongst law enforcement communities. To this end Access to Justice is collaborating
with the Lagos State Ministry of Justice to conduct series of training workshops on the ACJ Law for
boththe Magistratesand the Police. The first of these workshops, which is principally designed for
senior police officers, will take place sometime in early December, 2013
Thank you.