CHAPTER 5: - Right to Fair Trial: - Article 7 1. Constitutional and Judicial Measures  Section 36 of the Nigerian Constitution guarantees the right to fair hearing/trial and deals with fair hearing within reasonable time, presumption of innocence, legal assistance and interpretation to the accused, the rule against retroactivity of laws and the rule against compellability of evidence and undefined law.  Judicial Measures The Supreme Court of Nigeria has consistently upheld the right to fair hearing/fair trial having determined its nature and scope of application in the following cases: - Fadeye v. Dada (2016) 15 NWLR (Pt.1534) p.80; Asuquo v. The State (2016) 14 NWLR (Pt.1532) P.309; Ude v. State (2016) 14 NWLR (Pt. 1531) P.122; and Assamins v. Ararume (2016) INWLR (Pt.1493) P.368. 2. Administrative Measures: - Awaiting trial inmates and prison decongestion reform initiatives 2005-16 Sequel to the Federal Executive Council’s approval in 2005, the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation began a nationwide systematic prison decongestion exercise by Government to improve and strengthen the international processes of managing the nation’s prisons. The Program has, through these necessary, proactive and firm measures, achieved its primary target of reducing the population of Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs) in Nigerian prisons and generally improving the criminal justice system in the country. The Prison Act (Amendment Bill) 2016 is receiving due consideration of the National Assembly. The Statistics obtained through the Ministry’s monitoring mechanism for the Program indicate that over 47,956 inmates have so far benefited from the program through the retention of the services of a large number of private Legal Practitioners (over 3,500 Solicitors) to undertake the defence of such persons in courts across the 36 states and the FCT. Payment of Fines: - The Federal Government has introduced a novel and laudable practice of payment of fines on behalf of indigent convicted for minor offences with option of fines. So far, over a thousand convicts have benefited nationwide. This is done in order to drastically reduce the number of convicts and has been found effective. A Success Story: - The achievements recorded in the course of this program include: i. The prosecution of over 22,000 cases before various courts in the Country through the instrumentality of this program; ii. Retaining the services of over 3,500 private counsel to represent over 47,000 accused persons charged for various offences; iii. Regular installmental payment to the external solicitors engaged, as pegged by the Ministry; and iv. Creating the enabling environment for officers of this Ministry to visit the prisons and have first-hand information about the conditions prevailing therein 55