Section 357 Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) Lagos

Section 357 Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, as amended in 2021, is about Plea by Corporations. It provides as follows:

(1) Where a Corporation is called upon to plead to any charge or information (including a new charge or information framed under the provisions of section 154, or a charge or information added to or altered under the provisions of section 154 or section 155) it may enter in writing by its representative a plea of guilty or not guilty or any plea which may be entered under the provisions of section 216, and if either the Corporation does not appear by a representative or, though it does so appear, fails to enter any plea, the Court shall order a plea of not guilty to be entered and the trial shall proceed as though the Corporation had duly entered a plea of not guilty.

(2) A representative for the purposes of this Law need not be appointed under the seal of the Corporation, and a statement in writing purporting to be signed by a Managing Director of the Corporation, or by any person (by whatever name called) having, or being one of the persons having, the management of the affairs of the Corporation, to the effect that the person named in the statement has been appointed as the representative of the Corporation for the purposes of this Law, shall be admissible without further proof as prima facie evidence that that person has been so appointed.

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