Legal practitioner and human rights activist, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has sent proposals to the National Assembly on how to ensure speedy prosecution of corruption cases in the ongoing constitution amendment exercise. The lawyer’s memorandum was titled ‘Proposal for constitutional amendment to address the delay in criminal trials in Nigeria’.
In his “Proposal”, Keyamo explained that the gesture was informed by the fact that “the delays in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, especially corruption-related cases, have become a notorious fact”. He noted that prominent Nigerians, who are facing serious corruption cases, had devised ways of delaying their trials and “At the end of the day, the cases are lost because of the death of witnesses, loss of memory by witnesses, loss of exhibits, loss of interest and zeal by prosecutors and the aggrieved by effluxion of time, and the compromise of witnesses by the accused,” he said.