Section 319 Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) Lagos

Section 319 Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, as amended in 2021, is about General power of awarding imprisonment in default of payment of penalty. It provides as follows:

(1) Where, by any written law the Court is empowered to impose a penalty for an offence triable summarily, it may, in the absence of express provision to the contrary in the same or any other written law, order a defendant who is convicted of such offence, in default of payment of the sum of money adjudged to be paid by the order, at the time specified in the order, as the case may be, to be imprisoned, in accordance with the scale set out in this section.

(2) Subject to the provisions of a written law on which an order is founded, the period of imprisonment, whether with or without labour, which is imposed by the Court in respect of the non-payment of any sum to be paid by an order, shall be such period as in the opinion of the Court will satisfy the justice of the case but shall not exceed the maximum fixed in the following scale:

Imprisonment in default of payment of fine shall not exceed the following where fine:
Does not exceed N=5,000 — seven (7) days
Does not exceed N=6,000 — fourteen (14) days
Does not exceed N=7,000 — one (1) month
Does not exceed N=8,000 — two (2) months
Does not exceed N=9,000 — four (4) months
Does not exceed N=10,000 — six (6) months
Does not exceed N=11,000 — one (1) year
Does not exceed N=12,000 — two (2) years

(3) No commitment for non-payment of a fine shall be for a period longer than two (2) years, except where the law under which the conviction has taken place enjoins or allows a longer period.

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