Section 264 Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) Lagos

Section 264 Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, as amended in 2021, is about Court shall remand defendant in custody. It provides as follows:

(1) Any person arrested for any offence triable on information shall within a reasonable time of arrest be brought before a Magistrate for remand and the Magistrate shall have powers to remand such a person after examining the reasons for the arrests exhibited in the request form filed by the Police, and if satisfied that there is probable cause to remand such person pending legal advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions or the arraignment of such person before the appropriate Court or Tribunal.

(2) In this section ‘‘probable cause’’ includes: circumstance of the individual case, nature and seriousness of the alleged offence, reasonable grounds that the person has been involved in the commission of the alleged offence and reasonable grounds that the person may abscond or commit further serious offence.

(3) The request form filed by the Police in accordance with subsection (1) of this section shall contain reasons for the request for remand.

(4) Following an examination of the remand form filed by the Police, the Magistrate shall consider the conduct, personality and social circumstances of the person concerned before making an order of remand.

(5) Where applicable, a Magistrate shall grant bail to any person brought before him pursuant to subsection (1) of this section pending the arraignment of such person before the appropriate Court or Tribunal.

(6) An order of remand made pursuant to subsection (1) of this section shall not exceed a period of thirty (30) days in the first instance and at the expiration of which the Magistrate shall order the release of the person remanded unless good cause is shown why there should be a further remand order for a period not exceeding one (1) month.

(7) At the expiration of the further order made pursuant to subsection (6) above, the Magistrate shall issue a hearing notice to the Commissioner of Police and Director of Public Prosecutions and adjourn the matter in order to inquire as to the position of the case and for the Commissioner of Police and Director of Public Prosecutions to show cause why the person remanded should not be released.

(8) The Magistrate may extend the order to remand only if satisfied that there is a good cause shown and that necessary steps have been taken to arraign the person before an appropriate Court or Tribunal.

(9) The power to make inquiry as conferred by this section shall be exercised whether the suspect is present in Court or not.

(10) In this section unless the context otherwise requires, ‘‘offences triable on information’’ means any offence—
(a) which on conviction shall be punished by a term of imprisonment exceeding two (2) years;
(b) which on conviction shall be punished by imposition of a fine exceeding Fifty Thousand Naira (N=50,000.00); or
(c) which on conviction shall be punished by death.

(11) An application for remand shall be made in accordance with the form prescribed in the schedule to this Law.

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