Victim Participation in Plea Bargaining: A Challenge to Nigeria's New Criminal Procedure Laws

Abstract

One of the most phenomenal developments in Nigeria's criminal justice system was the recent enactment of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.[1] This law, which came into effect in 2015contains far reaching innovations. These new innovative provisions include the concept of negotiating with an offender, which in criminal justice is referred to as plea bargaining. Although plea bargaining is new to the Nigerian criminal justice system, it is a concept concept well entrenched in other jurisdictions around the world. As a controversial component of charges and sentencing procedure, plea bargaining, has for ages continued to generate plethora of debate among scholars. Most often, the argument is on whether it adds utility to criminal justice administration or is simply the commodification of justice. What is undoubtedly true of plea bargaining is its enormous consequence on the rights and roles of parties as well as the effect it has on the general procedure in criminal justice.

This paper intends to look at the concept of plea bargaining from a wider perspective as it affects the legitimate interests of the victim of crime. The argument reviews situations in which this idea of negotiating with a criminal offender leaves the victim unattended and isolated despite his or her trauma as the one at the receiving end of a criminal act. His or her interest is subsumed even more that in conventional trials as disposal of cases move from the conventional courtroom adversariality to some form of bureaucratic arrangement.