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
30TH 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)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
his height,
his photograph,
his full fingerprint impressions, or
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 AttorneyGeneral 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.