Justice Kazeem Alogba, the Chief Judge of Lagos State, unveiled the Bail Information Management System (BIMS) on Tuesday at the Ikeja High Court.
Alogba said that the system would cut down on the time it takes to find and confirm defendants and sureties, which would make prisons less crowded.
The Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RolaC) initiative of the British Council supported and EU-funded the programme.
The system, according to Justice Alogba, would make the process of documenting and processing bail easier by automating tasks that would otherwise be done manually.
He mentioned that the system will be helpful in the Magistrates and High Courts as well as for other uses than legal proceedings.
“This recording system will also enable us to easily exercise our discretion in taking decisions on bail applications.
“You will easily know if this person is a regular bail customer or has jumped bail previously; you’d know what to do,’’ he said.
In his remarks, Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo, pointed out that excessively extended pretrial custody is expensive for both the state and the prisoners.
Onigbanjo made the point that even when defendants were not present in court, offences may still be pursued, which was made by Mrs. Adenike Oluwafemi, Deputy Director of Public Prosecution.
He said that the bail system has been beset by regulatory problems notwithstanding legal safeguards intended to safeguard defendants’ liberties and the sureties that backed them up.
As the first of its type in Nigeria and West Africa, the commissioner predicted that the BIMS will fundamentally alter how criminal justice is administered in Lagos State.
RolaC, according to its coordinator in Lagos State, Mrs. Ajibola Ijimakinwa, funded the initiative to improve good governance by bolstering the rule of law, reducing corruption, and expanding access to justice.
Musbau Famuyiwa, the project consultant, stressed that BIMS was primarily for magistrates courts in his remarks and mentioned that roughly 60 court registrars had been taught to operate the system.
More than 100 sureties have already been profiled, according to Famuyiwa, who said that seven magistrates courts are presently utilising the pilot programme.
