PRAWA, Switzerland to
PRAWA, Switzerland to enhance Nigeria’s Justice,
Security sector reforms
The Prison Rehabilitation And Welfare Action (PRAWA) and
Government of Switzerland have pledged to commitment to enhance
ongoing reforms in Nigeria’s Justice and Security Sector
institutions through the Administration of Criminal Justice Act
(ACJA) mechanism.
This was the highlights of the workshop on ‘Enhancing Synergy
Amongst Justice Sector Oversight Mechanism’ organised by the
Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC) in
collaboration with PRAWA and made available at the weekend in
Abuja.
Speaking, the Executive Director PRAWA, Dr. Uju Agomoh, called
on the relevant institutions to strengthen cooperation and
collaboration in order to accelerate the actualisation of the
implementation of ACJA in Nigeria.
Agomoh noted that there are lots of Mechanism platforms whose
mandates include monitoring and oversight but the focus is how to
ensure these are coordinated to avoid duplication and wasting of
resources.
She called on the participating agencies including the Nigerian
Police Force (NPF), Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), Nigeria
Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Department of State
Services (DSS), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Nigerian
Customs Service (NCS), Legal Aid Council of Nigeria (LACoN),
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Nigerian Bar Association
(NBA), NDLEA, EFCC, ICPC and NAPTIP amongst others to share
experiences and coordinate their actions.
She urged “each participating agencies to share their
experiences and mandates to know how it can help one another and
synergise”.
Agomoh also expressed hope of “being able to develop in very
practical terms what we can do and initiate to take collective
ownership of” a coordinated reform processes.
In the same vein, the Ambassador, Embassy of Switzerland to
Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Libya and ECOWAS, Mr. George Steiner, said
his government is interested in reversing the prevailing situation
of “poor and untimely Justice delivery as well as weak cooperation
among relevant institutions.
“I find it troubling and want to see that there is need for
action to be taken in this regard”.
Steiner however, commended PRAWA and ACJMC’s efforts to tackle
the challenges and close the gaps that exists within and amongst
the security and justice sector oversight agencies.
“Government of Switzerland is committed at improving the
Nigerian Justice Sector reforms,” she assured.
Also speaking, the Secretary of ACJMC, Mr. Sulayman Dawodu,
noted that the achievements of ACJA is hampered by the fact that
District Police Officers have to still wait for signals and
clearance from the Commissioners of Police before they could carry
out on what is already stipulated in the law.
According to Dawodu, “this is a large hindrance towards the
implementation of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act”.
He also noted a challenge with the long detention of people
arrested under the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Monitoring
Unit in violation of the ACJA provisions.
On his own, the National Programme Manager, Rule of Law and
Anti-corruption Programme (RoLAC), Mr. Danladi Plang, said its
important that the ACJMC ensures that the judicial officers and
relevant agencies carry out their mandates as stipulated in the ACJ
Act.
Plang however, noted that to achieve this “it is critical to
ensure that the heads of agencies in the security and Justice
sector are actively involved and play their part”.
By PRNigeria