15 (UNREPORTED). (original) (raw)

As it is said among people of old, change is a desideratum of time. It is therefore not unexpected that as Nigeria's Democracy grows, our laws must of necessity live up to the demands of the changing times. It is as a result of the quest to bring our laws up to date that stakeholders through tortuous processes have given to the nation, The Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015. Offcourse contentious provisions of the Act are being tested daily with lawyers proffering interpretations of such same provisions. It is however a duty for the courts to give final interpretations to such contentious provisions. Very recently, one of such issues arose for determination of the court. The question presented to the court is as follows, " Taking into consideration, the provisions of Section 355 of the ACJL, where a complainant lays allegations against a person and on account of such allegations, a prosecuting authority within the justice system, initiates criminal proceedings against such an accused person, can the complainant thereafter withdraw the complaint and by virtue of that withdrawal compel the prosecuting authority to discontinue the case? " In other words, " Can a prosecuting authority continue to prosecute an accused person when the complainant withdraws his allegations against accused person? " The background to the poser is that in the last quarter of 2015, an Abuja based musician lodged a complaint with the Nigerian Copyright Commission against Telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria, for selling to its subscribers without his consent, music tracks he created as ring tones. The NCC began investigations and thereafter based on powers coffered on it by Section 20 Nigerian Copyright Act, instituted criminal proceedings in the Federal High Court against MTN Nigeria and its expatriate Managing Director for criminal breach of copyright. In the meantime, the musician pursuant to the provisions of Section 24 of the Copyright Act assembled a legal team and instituted civil proceedings against MTN Nigeria. Before long, the parties in the civil suit reached an amicable settlement of the dispute. Among the terms of settlement adopted as consent judgment of the honorable court was the following clause " The plaintiff by the execution of these terms of settlement hereby withdraws all his processes or petitions pending before this honorable court or any other authority " In order to give teeth to the above clause, the plaintiff who is the petitioner in the criminal proceedings by way of motion on notice brought pursuant to Section 17 of the Federal High Court Act, Section 355 and Section 494 of the ACJA intervened in the criminal trial of MTN Nigeria requesting the court to discontinue the trial of the accused persons. Section 355 of the ACJA 2015, provides as follows; " Where a complainant at any time before a final order is made in a case, satisfies the court that there are sufficient grounds for permitting him to withdraw his complaint, the court may permit him to withdraw the complaint and shall thereupon acquit the defendant ". Section 17 Federal High Court Act provides as follows; " In any proceedings in the Court, the Court may promote reconciliation among the parties thereto and encourage and facilitate the amicable settlement thereof " .