Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, yesterday, explained why the FG did not arrest the Arewa Youths when it issued quit notice to the Igbos residing in the North.
Speaking at a press briefing, Malami stated that before the government can take action on such matter, it must first engage in a thorough investigation, adding that it also considered the security implication.
According to him, ‘the way government works is that we have to do investigation and we also consider the security implication. The government can’t be found wanting and will not shy away from its responsibilities of ensuring law and order.”
Speaking on the prosecution of Boko Haram cases, Malami revealed that four judges had been assigned to handle all terrorism cases that are before the federal high court.
“Before now, we don’t have specific judges that handle those cases but now, the Chief Judge has given us four judges to handle those cases,” he stated.
Going further, the AGF revealed the achievement of the Federal Ministry of Justice, within the last two years.
He stated that the Ministry received and concluded the prosecution of about 6,339 criminal cases and 325 civil cases in various courts in the country
According to him, the Ministry received and concluded 3,709 criminal petitions in 2015 and 1000 in 2016. Under Conspiracy and Armed Robbery cases, the Minister said that 500 cases were concluded in 2015, while 853 was concluded in 2016.
In 2015, 100 cases of Terrorism were concluded, while 196 was concluded in 2016. Under Criminal Conspiracy, 761 cases were concluded in 2015.
“Under the period under review, the Department of Public Prosecution’s of the Federation also received a total of 2000 criminal case files from the Nigerian Police to prosecute in the Magistrate Court owing to the anactment of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.”
Under the Civil Litigation, the AGF stated that the Ministry was able to conclude over to 325 matters in the domestic courts.
The breakdown showed that in 2015, out of 543 civil cases, 84 cases were resolved. In 2016, out of 507 civil cases, 167 were resolved and in 2017, out of 280 civil cases, 74 have so far been resolved.
The AGF, however, added that more than 90 per cent of the matters determined were decided in favour of the federal government.
