30 January, 2013

‘WHY WE COULD NOT PROSECUTE MAN WITH 89 WIVES’


In the past four years  Niger State government’s efforts  to prosecute the man with 89 wives in Bida, Mallam Bello Masaba had been unsuccessful because of legal lacuna.
 The Speaker Niger State House of Assembly, Barrister Adamu Usman has disclosed that the various attempts to prosecute Masaba ran into hitches because there was no provisions in the law of the state to effect his prosecution.
The Speaker who was the Attorney -General in 2009 when Masaba was arraigned disclosed this yesterday at a public hearing on five bills to amend the High Court Law, Sharia Court of Appeal Law, Sharia Criminal Procedure Code, Sharia Penal Code and a law for the constitution of Sharia Courts of the State at the Assembly Complex.

Usman said that when he was Attorney- General he personally appeared in Upper Sharia court Minna as prosecutor to prosecute Masaba but discovered that the Sharia courts in the state could not deal with the case.
He said, “As Attorney- General then I personally appeared before Sharia court, Minna as prosecutor to prosecute the man but later discovered that Sharia courts in Niger State cannot deal with the case. No provision made in Penal code C.P.C or Sharia administration of Justice law to deal with such cases.”
According to him “ the case was later transferred to Chief Magistrate court 1 Minna then but again an objection was taken for his trial because our existing penal code law did not provide for such offences and procedure for his trial because none were created under the Sharia administration law and enacted by the State House of Assembly”.
He said trying Masaba then would have contravened Section 36(12) of 1999 constitution which stipulated that a person shall not be convicted of a criminal offence unless the offence was defined by law.
The speaker therefore stated that the public hearing on the five bills would help amend the existing laws and remove the lacuna therein for effective justice administration of the state.
He said that the process should not stop at passing the laws alone but it was necessary that the people were educated about the law through serious and intensified advocacy.
Also speaking the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Isah Kawu stated that the  public hearing was to enable the House collect views of the people for the process of passing the bills.
While promising that a good job would be done on the bills he said that the public hearing was to also ensure that the provisions of the bills conformed with the 1999 constitution.
Source: Leadership

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