Norway, Clean Foundation Holds Stakeholders Meeting On Criminal Justice

William Attah

A justice sector reform-based NGO, Clean Foundation, in collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Embassy, is engaging stakeholders in Gombe State towards strengthening the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) in the State.

The five-day workshop, sponsored by the Royal Norwegian Embassy, brought together critical stakeholders in the administration of justice and aims to strengthen the full implementation of the ACJL.

Mr Bernard Ekobay, the Senior Programme Officer, Clean Foundation, said Gombe is among eleven other States where the programme is expected to be implemented.

The other States are: Adamawa, Plateau, Benue, Imo, Enugu, Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, Lagos, Ekiti, Jigawa, and Kaduna, and Mr Bernard adds that the engagement is expected to look at the functionality of the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee in these States in the last five years that the law came into being.

Some of these stakeholders include the judiciary, correctional service, the police, vigilantes, hunters, the ministry of justice, magistrates, CSO’s and a wide spectrum of participants.

“We tried to strengthen their capacity with the institutionalisation of the law. Some of them do not know the letters of the law, some know it exists, but what is truly contained in the law is missing.

“There is a need to balance it in the form of what is known and what is obtainable in the State with the minimum standards”, he stressed.

He observed so far that Gombe State is doing well in the areas of correctional facilities, custodial measures, which has started in the State.

He said, “We just want to note those lapses and see how we can collaborate with the sector to enhance, build their capacity towards strengthening those weaknesses and making sure we arrest and bridge the gaps in the justice sector”.

He also decried the weak state of the legal aid in the State due to understaffing and non-performance.

For the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC), Mr Bernard stated that the committee is said to have been constituted but nis ot in existence.

“It shows the committee has not met in the last five years to discuss issues that have to do with ACJL in the State. Some stakeholders are not aware that they are part of the committee”, he lamented.

 He decried the weak state of the legal aid in the State, saying, “Gombe State, as it stands, does not have up to five legal aides and on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, a lot of individuals do not have access to lawyers, showing also that they do not have access to legal representation”.

 He was, however, optimistic that having such workshops, training and retraining, retreats to equip personnel on new laws, as well as agencies’ collaboration will help the sector to perform optimally.