2. The Defendant shall then during his
defence and as part of his defence, call
witnesses and or adduce evidence to prove
that the confessional statement was not
obtained voluntarily.
3. The parties shall thereafter include legal
arguments
with
respect
to
the
admissibility or otherwise of the
confessional statement in their final
addresses and the court shall in the final
judgment in the matter, include its ruling
on the admissibility or otherwise of the
said confessional statement.
The objective and guiding principle upon which the said practice
direction was issued, is well stated in section 2 of the practice direction
which provides as follows:“2. The purpose of this Practice Direction,
is to expedite the trial of Criminal cases
by eliminating the delay occasioned in the
proceedings by stopping the substantive
proceedings and conducting trial-withintrial when a Defendant raise objection to
the admissibility of a confessional
statement on the ground that same was
not obtained voluntarily”.
From the foregoing provisions of the practice direction particularly
Section 2 which deals with objective and guiding principle, it has
become clear that the Practice Direction is no doubt in conformity
with the provisions of Section 1 of the ACJL of Sokoto State 2019 in
terms of its objective of achieving speedy dispensation of justice in the
Administration of Criminal Justice System in the State.
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