Section 461: Arrangements for community service

(1) There shall be established by the Chief Judge in every Judicial Division a Community Service Centre to be headed by a Registrar who shall be responsible for overseeing the execution of Community Service Orders in that Division.
(2) The Registrar shall be assisted by suitable personnel who shall supervise the implementation of Community Service Orders that may be handed down by the courts.
(3) The functions of the Community Service Centre include:
(a) documenting and keeping detailed information about convicts sentenced to Community Service including the:
(i) name of the convict,
(ii) sentence and the date of the sentence,
(iii) nature, duration and location of the Community Service,
(iv) residential address of the convict,
(v) height, photograph, full fingerprint impressions, and
(vi) other means of identification as may be appropriate;
(b) providing assistance to the court in arriving at appropriate Community Service Order in each case;
(c) monitoring the operation of Community Service in all its aspects;
(d) counselling offenders with a view to bringing about their reformation;
(e) recommending to the court a review of the sentence of offenders on Community Service who have shown remorse;
(f) proposing to the Chief Judge measures for effective operation of Community Service Orders;
(g) ensuring that supervising officers perform their duties in accordance with the law; and
(h) performing such other functions as may be necessary for the smooth administration of Community Service Orders.
(4) Where the court has made an order committing the convict to render community service, the community service shall be in the nature of:
(a) environmental sanitation, including cutting grasses, washing drainages, cleaning the environment and washing public places;
(b) assisting in the production of agricultural produce, construction, or mining; and
(c) any other type of service which in the opinion of the court would have a beneficial and reformative effect on the character of the convict.
(5) The Community Service sentence shall be performed as close as possible to the place where the convict ordinarily resides to ensure that the community can monitor his movement.
(6) Before passing a community service order, the court shall consider the circumstances, character, antecedents of the convict and other factors that may be brought to its attention by the Registrar of the Community Service Centre.
(7) A convict sentenced to community service shall not at the same time be sentenced to a term of imprisonment for the same offence, but may in default of performing his community service diligently and to the satisfaction of the court, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment for the remaining part of his community service to which he is in default or neglect.
(8) Upon sentence to community service, a convict shall be required to produce a guarantor who shall undertake to produce the convict if the he absconds from community service.
(9) The guarantor shall be a relation of the convict or any other responsible person of adequate means or substance who shall produce the convict when required by the court, failing which the guarantor shall be liable to a fine of one hundred thousand naira or more as the circumstances of each case may require.