by 
I represented the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Paul Usoro SAN at the State Validation Public Forum for the Domestication and Implementation of Kano State Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2019, in Kano yesterday.
I was in awe of the richness of the history of the Kano Branch which has produced many silks, Attorneys General of the Federation, Attorneys General of the State and NBA President.
The large turn out of younger lawyers and their immense and purposeful contributions at the programme however encouraged me that the Branch is promised of even a richer future.
How about the Kano State Administration of Criminal Justice Law itself? It is full of innovations crafted by the best learned brains led by Ibrahim Mukhtar the indefatigable Attorney General of the State, who is the immediate past Chairman of the Kano Branch.
One such innovation that the law presents is the abolition of the trial within trial procedure by providing that the voluntariness of a Defendant’s statement will be proved in the ordinary course of the proceedings by the State and the judge will only make its ruling in respect of the voluntariness of a Defendant’s statement in the course of its judgement.
As expected, the issue generated stimulating, hot but respectful discourse among the panelists including the Attorney General and the vibrant members of Kano Branch in the audience. The lawyers for and against are already enthusiastic as to what the Courts will say when the propriety of the provision is tested before their lordships. Kano is that brilliant.
In my closing remark, I wrapped up by calling attention to what appears to me the most unique feature of the Law – Section 349 (6). The Kano State Administration of Criminal Justice Law encourages pro bono representation by providing that the Attorney General pays lawyers assigned by judges to cases where defendants have no counsel. Kano is that kind.
Habeeb Lawal
National Assistant Publicity Secretary , Nigerian Bar Association
