AN APPRAISAL OF SAFEGUARD AGAINST THE ABUSE OF PLEA BARGAIN AGREEMENTS UNDER THE NIGERIAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Abstract

The Nigerian Criminal Justice System (NCJS) is an interrelated structure for equity, fairness and justice
against illegalities. On the other hand, plea bargain is an agreement between parties to a criminal trial,
whereby the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser offence or few of multiple charges in exchange for some
concession by the prosecutor and which agreement is enforced by the courts. There are explicit
conditions that must be met in order for a plea agreement to have the force of law. Safeguard of these
conditions is sacrosanct. Thus, the aim of this article was to appraise the safeguard against abuse of plea
bargain agreements under NCJS. The methodology adopted was doctrinal, dealing with analysis of both
primary and secondary resources from physical and e-library. This article found that there are some
inadequacies in the law and practice of plea bargain agreement. Also, that apart from the parties,
prosecutors and judiciary, the National Assembly also has impact in the plea bargain agreement.
Therefore, this article recommended among others that the National Assembly should amend the
Constitution to provide for plea bargain agreement as a viable tool in NCJS, also Attorney Generals and
heads of prosecuting authorities should develop prosecutorial standards and guidelines for plea bargain
agreement and ensure to monitor and supervise all prosecutors against abuse of prosecutorial discretion
in plea bargain practice.