Some experts in the judiciary sector have underscored the need to decongest the Nigerian prisons using access to justice projects.
They expressed the concern on Tuesday in Abuja at the “Access to Justice parley and joint inauguration of the Court Administration and Case Management, and Reforming Pre-Trail Detention in Nigeria phase II.
Prof. Akinseye George, President Centre for Social – Studies said that number one problem of criminal justice system in Nigeria was delay, saying the major reason for the delay was lack of effective pre-trail case management.
“Effective pre-trail case management would create a situation where the judge, the prosecutor, the witnesses and all the parties including the complaint would have agreed on the timetable for the trail before the trail begins.
“But in Nigeria we don’t conduct effective pre-trail case management even though the law provides for it.
“So it is important that all the heads of court, Attorneys General must begin to insist that courts trying criminal cases must conduct pre-trail case management.
“So what the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) is doing in collaboration with the U.S Embassy is to begin to build capacity of Nigerian legal system to conduct effective pre-trail case management before trials commence.
He said that without pre-trail every effort to fast track justice would not be effective, and it does not augur well for democracy.
He, therefore, called on all the stakeholders to work together to improve access to justice because without effective access to justice democracy is meaningless.
The Chief Executive Officer, PPDC, Mr Jubril Shittu said that over 70 percent of Nigerian inmates population were on awaiting trial.
He explained that Access to Justice projects were aimed at ensuring that average individual had the assurance that justice is not delayed or denial.
“That they have a fair chance at justice and that justice is transparent.
“We want to see that those on awaiting trail, over 70,000 in the correction facilities across the country, we want to see the numbers reduced.
”We don’t want to be just building more correctional facilities. We also want to achieve a reduction in the number of correction facilities, “Shittu said.
According to him, PPDC was established 20 years and it hope has been to see that citizens benefits from good governance, from effective institutions and from accountable and transparent institutions.
Similarly, the Board Chairman, PPDC, Mr Chibuzo Ekwekwuo said the purpose of the programme was to bring actors together to examine the access to justice reform process in Nigeria.
“To look at best practices that’s things that have worked, identify the challenges that we still have and to have a joint resolve on how to continue to improve access to justice and improve livelihood,” Ekwekwuo said.
On his part, the Controller General, Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa while commending the leadership of PPDC, said that the service was partnering with the Centre to improve on its performance.
“PPDC is partnering with the Nigerian Correctional Service in the development and deployment of Corrections Information Management System (CIMS) and more facilities are being integrated across the states.
”This initiative will benefit indigent persons in our custody and enhance our performance in case management,” Nababa said.
The controller general was represented by Gimba Dumbulwa, Assistant Controller, Custody of the Service.
The programme was organised by the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) in collaboration with the U.S government.
