Background
For three days, a rights advocacy organization, known as Centre for Transparency Advocacy, CTA, in collaboration with the Abia State Ministry of Justice, engaged strategic stakeholders in the administration of criminal justice law on capacity building, in order to raise awareness of the Abia State Criminal Justice Law, ACJL, 2017, also cited as Law no 12 of 2017.
From the testimonials of participants, many are not aware of the law, let alone its provisions, a situation the law enforcement agencies have painfully taken advantage of to rob the citizens of their guaranteed rights.
Mandate
‘The goal,’ of the training and awareness creation of the law, according to the Executive Director of CTA, Engr. Faith Nwadishi, “is to speed up trial process, improve case management, protect society from crime, ensure a more humane and rightscentred approach to criminal justice and ultimately improve citizen’s trust in the administration of the criminal justice processes and institutions.”
She explained the task as simply ensuring that the reforms are neither theoretical nor rhetorical but leaving principles that deliver timely justice and uphold right of everyone who seeks or is subject to the State’s justice mechanism.
Nwadishi further disclosed that the NGO has embarked on “the simplification of the ACJL 2017, by making it more accessible and compressible to empower citizens to understand their rights and obligations, foster trust in the system and promote a culture of accountability and respect for human dignity.”
The ED declared that the training for various groups – security agencies, judiciary, community leaders, women and youth leaders – was to ensure effective collaboration to achieve the objectives.
As a ground rule, no individual, group, institution or organisation was on trial at the training. However, participants were unanimous that the police and officers of the law – judges and lawyers – were the worst violators of citizens’ rights and perverts of justice.
Categories of trainees
The capacity building project supported by the Rule of Law and AntiCorruption Programme (RoLAC), funded by the European Union through International IDEA, trained different segments of the society, including the security agencies, civil society organisations, the media, legal practitioners, women and youth groups, traditional leaders, religious and faith-based organisations and other relevant stakeholders.
The concern is genuine. The issues are both germane and tendentious. Seven years after the law was promulgated, abuses and violations of citizen’s rights have continued unabated by law enforcement agencies and the courts, in spite of the guaranteed rights.
There are reports of demand for as much as N100, 000 for bail in a civil matter by the police in spite of being made free by the criminal justice law.
Judiciary under scrutiny
The training also became imperative because in recent times the Nigerian judiciary has come under intense scrutiny and bashing, even from its own members, over obvious travesty and outright injustice.
Indeed, some recent pronouncements and judgements have fallen below the expectation of every standard of jurisprudence, and therefore an embarrassment to citizens and the nation.
This is besides the conflicting judgements from courts of coordinate and concurrent jurisdiction. The cases of judges who were sanctioned for their roles in some embarrassing judgements by the US and other nations with value for the rule of law, is still fresh.
It is common knowledge that in Nigeria the law has no standard. The judge, as an interpreter of the law, can twist any case in favour of the high and mighty or as they say, the highest bidder.
Allegations of corruption has severally rocked the judiciary and the legal profession time and again. On the other hand, the police hierarchy has attempted severally to sanitise and purge its ranks of corruption, extortion and human rights abuses.
But the more they try the more it seems the war is far from being won. The courts and the police are complicit in exploiting the loopholes, weaknesses of the law and citizens’ ignorance to perpetrate oppression of the citizenry.
In climes where the rule of law is upheld, citizens not only know their rights, they are also aware of the provisions of the law and so cannot be taken for granted. But not so here.
Even in clear cases of violations the actions of the law enforcement agencies and law officers go unchallenged.
Roles of CSOs
This is where the role of Rights and Advocacy groups, Civil Society Organisations are relevant in raising awareness of provisions of the law as it affects citizens. The Law contains the rights of offenders, victims and the citizens in the administration of the criminal justice law as highlighted by a legal practitioner, Barrister Chiemezielam UluohaSteve.
It provided for free bail, rights of defendants and victims to choose their lawyers, not to make statements under duress, compensation and restitution as well as prohibits the arrest of a defendant’s relative in order to get him/her, among other provisions.
Lamentations
Participants, including the representative of the Civil Society Organisations and State Chairman of Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria, PPFN, Dr Suny Ibeneme; Lady Chinyere Frank Ibe of the National Council of Women Society, NCWS; and Chief Wisdom Kalu, Chairman of Joint Association of People With Disability, PWD, testified that they and their members were not aware of the provisions of the law, lamenting the violations citizens have suffered in the hands of security agencies.
They underscored the need for collaboration among the stakeholders to raise awareness of the provisions of the law among citizens.
For instance, it is common to hear of arrest and detention without trial beyond the time stipulated by the law or even demanding money for bail which the law says is free or outright refusal of bail on grounds of gender or other untenable reasons not recognised by law.
It is worrisome that the law enforcement agencies and law officers do these to their own countrymen. They forget that there can be no peace in the absence of justice.
The result is that many have been kept in prison without trial, thereby destroying an otherwise promising future. Some are detained illegally because they cannot afford the bribe demanded to secure their release or procure justice.
The impunity with which the law enforcement agencies go about their duties, most of the time, have turned the society to a jungle. One gets justice or get trampled upon depending on how wealthy or highly connected or how poor, not on the basis of the law.
We also have cases where women in detention or custodial centres give birth and the innocent children automatically become prisoners for no fault of theirs. There are, in some cases, reports of demand for tips before one can see an inmate in a custodial centre.
Overcrowding of custodial centres has become the norm rather than the exception, with the attendant inhuman and dehumanising treatment of inmates.
The result is that rather than the intended reform people come out of Correctional Centres traumatised and worse off emotionally, mentally, psychologically and physically, than before they went in.
In spite of mounting advocacy against sending minor offenders to prison, the police and lawyers insist it must be done to serve as a deterrent even for offences as minor as loitering and sanitation offences, especially if one cannot pay the amount demanded.
In some cases, to give their action a semblance of legality, they tag it mobile court or trial.
Grassroots message
It is against this background that the Strengthening Access to Justice for All in Abia State project was such a huge relief to the citizens.
To ensure effective dissemination and awareness, CTA engaged radio stations in live discussions and jingles to reach and cascade the message to every segment of society.
The participants demanded speedy simplification and free distribution of copies of the law. They also requested immediate review of the law to take care of situations where government does not obey its own courts, address absence of remand homes and juvenile courts, special treatment for people with disability, arrest and detention without trial.
Increasing number of awaiting trial inmates, overcrowding and dis – ease outbreak in custodial centres, arrest of relative or family member as a bait to apprehend the defendant, and keeping children in custodial centres with their parents among other rights violations.
The Nigeria Correctional Service, NCS, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, Chief Judge of Abia State, Justice Lilian Abai, represented by Justice Agwu Kalu, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Chibuzo Ehiemere, were among the participants. They all saw the need for collaboration for the effective implementation of the law.
Please follow and like us:
