The Federal Government has lent its support to the ongoing plans by the Nigerian Law Reform Commission to unify the criminal and penal codes being operated by the Southern and Northern parts of the country as a way of enhancing national unity.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) who said this, yesterday, while addressing participants at a workshop on unification and reform of Criminal and Penal Codes in Abuja,? added that the federal government supported the plans by the Nigerian Law Reform Commission to unify the laws.
He noted that operating two different criminal codes had resulted in a dichotomy in national discourse.
In his view, unification of the two sets of laws would help government to forge national unity as a crime in Lagos would also be seen as a crime in Kano.
He said, “It has, therefore, been argued that our colonial heritage of two legal systems dealing with criminal matters has been one of the mechanisms that had perpetuated the concepts of north and south in critical national discourse.
“In addition to the need to address this historical distortion through a bold attempt at harmonisation, there is an equal imperative to review both codes, modernise them and keep them relevant to the needs of our society.”
Chairman of the Nigerian Law Reform Commission, a retired justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Umaru Kalgo, said that having a single penal code would promote greater sense of oneness.
According to him, the two criminal codes were long overdue for reforms as some of the provisions have become obsolete, spent and unnecessary.
He said, “Although we consider the exercise as capable of fostering national unity, we shall improvise to maintain our diversities and warn ourselves of the need for strict adherence to the principles of federalism, and by so doing, we promote and maintain fundamental values of democracy, good governance, human rights and rule of law.”
?