VANGUARD, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013—43
Required proof for criminal allegations in election petition (5) sophisticated infrastructure needed for arrests, investigation, confiscation, legitimate violence e.t.c; in quests to unravel the thorough details of socalled crimes. This is a domain exclusive to the State and it is such exclusivity that makes it easier for the State to unravel and prove the commission of crimes beyond reasonable doubt, for the purpose of securing convictions of persons responsible. The private entity can hardly access the infrastructure of that exclusivity without daunting fetters. Therefore,
BY AKINTAYO IWILADE HE concept of Tseverance still retains
the requirement of proving criminal allegations in civil proceedings beyond reasonable doubt because, the ‘severed’ pleadings, with criminal imputations, must still be proved beyond reasonable doubt else the claims founded on them will inevitably fail. Severance seems useful only where there are other pleadings devoid of criminal imputations and which have the suit’s main justiciable claims attached to them. To therefore argue, that the concept of severance of pleadings has cured whatever injustice the proof beyond reasonable doubt doctrine introduced into Election Petitions, would be another fatal misconception. As we have argued and for the reasons adduced, there is absolutely no basis to require that the standard of proof, for convictionseeking proceedings, be introduced into
the Law ought not to be mischievously blind to these contradictions? Private entities, lacking the exclusive prosecutorial infrastructure of the State, should be allowed to pursue their claims within the limits of the feeble powers conceded to them by the State. The Law should accordingly stop the treacherous assumptions of an equality of strength between the State and its subjects. Such treacherous assumptions are amplified through the incongruous insistence that private entities prove crime with the same dexterity expected
was alleged to have committed as a minor. Recall that it is trite in law that the relevant time and age in criminal jurisprudence and trial is the age of the offender at the time of commission of the crime and not the age at the time of conviction. This important principle of law was clearly ignored by the trial judge who convicted and sentenced her to death in violation of several regional and international human rights instruments. The African Union on the rights and welfare of the Nigerian Child stated in a recent report that Nigeria had an estimated number of 6,000 children within its prisons facilities across the country. An allegation that the Nigerian prisons authority vehemently denied stating that such an outrageous figure could not have been based on empirical evidence. In a bid to counter the figure in the AU report, the Nigerian Prisons Service, released official figures of children in Prisons through its public relations office. The statement asserted that there were 69 babies and 847 juveniles in the Prisons system in Nigeria as at March
•Akintayo IwiladeLagos-based Legal Practitioner ( e mail:iwilord@yahoo.co.uk)
IBA, set to hold M & A conference in Nigeria
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•Akintayo Iwilade proceedings seeking different outcomes such as compensatory damages, injunctive/restorative reliefs, declarations etc; such as are often sought in civil and Election Petition proceedings respectively. To demand that a private entity prove the
commission of a crime (and the personages actually responsible), beyond reasonable doubt, is tantamount to making the Law operate in denial of the limitations imposed, on lawful private entities, against the possession and deployment of the
REPARATIONS for the IBA Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) conference slated for Nigeria in on top gear. Scheduled for Novembe 6 to 8, , the three-day event will take place in Lagos. The conference tagged “Mergers Acquisitions & Inward Investments in Africa,” is organised by IBA African Regional
Forum and the IBA Corporate M & A Law Committee with the support of the IBA Arbitration Committee and the Asia Pacific Region committee. Speaking on preparations for the event, which has kicked off, far ahead of the annual conference in October, the Chair of the conference host com-
Highlighting the plight of pregnant women and babies in Nigerian prisons Continues from page 42
from the State when it is obvious there is unequal power between the State and the private entities competing for claims within it. More beffuddling is that it is obvious that the outcomes sought, when private entities compete for claims, are often fundamentally parallel and different from what the State seeks when it conducts a criminal trial against its subject(s).
31, 2013, making a total of 916 children in Nigerian prisons. It is noteworthy that whatever the real figures are: 916 or 6000, it is an anomaly for children to be incarcerated alongside their mothers in unsanitary conditions given the deplorable and unhygienic conditions of detention facilities in Nigerian prisons. These children are at best denied the chances of having a normal childhood with no provision by the government to ensure that those within school age have access to education. Although it is generally argued that most infants accompany their mother to the prisons because it is not advisable to separate a sucking child from the mother. The same reasoning is adopted for babies born in prison to female detainees. The fact remains that this special class of inmates: pregnant detainees and nursing mothers in prisons must be given special consideration in the penal system. The Nigerian government must begin to consider alternatives and specific institutional strategies in handling these special classes of inmates who are vulnerable due to their spe-
•Nigerian prison cial circumstances. While the practise of allowing female nursing detainees to keep their babies with them for up to 18 months gives room for bonding of mother and child, the infants are arguably exposed to higher medical risks due to the unhygienic and unhealthy prisons environment which compromises the health of adult prisoners let alone babies in Prisons. Nigerian prisons have acquired notoriety for infrastructural decay, overcrowding and the harsh and poor sanitary conditions detainees are forced to live by, conditions which pose a real threat to the life of inmates, majority
of who are still awaiting trial. In an interview granted to the Guardian newspaper in 2012, Dr. Okosun, a psychologist with a doctorate degree from the University of Ibadan while speaking on the negative impacts of having children in prison stressed that “the child’s performance in life’s affairs will be faced with several mental challenges, which will lead to something similar to a split personality with positive and negative sides. If not well managed, a confused thinking emerges and stress levels heighten in him”. Article 30 of the African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child specifically provides that “state parties to the charter shall undertake to provide special treatment to expectant mothers and to mothers of infants and young children who have been accused or found guilty of infringing the penal law and shall in particular: ensure that a non custodial sentence will always be first considered when sentencing such mothers; establish and promote measures alternative to institutional confinement for the treatment of such mothers; establish special alternative institutions for holding such mothers.
President of the International Bar Association, Michael Reynolds mittee; and former Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr Olasupo Shasore, SAN, explained that the IBA conferences are world class conferences and as such host countries are required to meet with certain standards, which he said, can only be achieved with adequate preparation. “As we speak, the sessions have been fixed, topics chosen, speakers confirmed and panellists selected,” he said. Confirming the level of preparedness of the organisers and the host committee, Shasore, listed a number of sessions and topics to be discussed at the conference. “Amongst the issues up for discussions are, “Investing in Africa: Investors, Protection and General Issues,” “Transactional Issues in African Cross Border M&A,” “Capital Markets in Africa,” “Chinese Investment in Africa,” “Oil & Gas Industry Law in Africa”, and “Alternative Dispute Resolution in Africa,” he said. Resources persons and facilitators are drawn from various jurisdictions and different parts of the world, including Africa, Europe and Asia.