Centre for Transparency Advocacy seeks free access to justice for all Abians
By Steve Oko
Centre for Transparency Advocacy, has advocated free citizens’ access to justice.
CTA Executive Director, Faith Nwadishi made the advocacy while speaking at the opening of a three-day capacity building workshop for security personnel and judicial officers in Abia.
The workshop with the theme: Strengthening the rule of law through effective implementation of administration of the Abia State Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACLJ) 2017″, was organised in partnership with the Abia State Ministry of Justice.
She noted with concern, complaints of non compliance with the provisions of the Abia State Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2017 by law enforcement agencies as well as judicial officers.
The CTA boss, therefore, solicited the cooperation of the media in educating citizens about their rights as provided for in the law, and to also help in exposing abuses.
She insisted that statements should not be extracted from suspects by coercion nor in the abscence of their lawyer.
She said : Citizens should be aware of their rights as enshrined in the law. Nobody should be tortured to give statements. We are also here to look at environments where suspects are kept, and the issue of elongating trials.
” People must have access to justice. In our society today, people are crying for access to justice”.
Speaking at the workshop, the facilitator and a legal practitioner, Ms Kelechi Oluoha-Steve, noted that the ACLJ 2017, just like most laws of the land, “is good” but regretted that “the problem has always been with the implementation”.
She called on the stakeholders including law enforcement agencies, and judicial officers to comply with the requirements of the law.
The legal practitioner argued that persons standing trials for offenses should rather be reffered to as defendants instead of suspects which is often used derogatorily.
” Persons suspected to have committed offense should be accorded their fundamental rights as citizens until proven guilty. Calling them suspects instead of defendants has psychological effect on them.”
She further highlighted that the ACLJ provided that people should not be arrested for crimes allegedly committed by their relations.
She also explained that children suspected for criminal acts should not be put in custody together with adults to avoid hardening them.
According to her, defendants reserve the right to be informed of their offense at the point of arrest, adding that their relations should be informed of their arrest at no cost to them unlike the practice in some detention centres.
Speaking earlier, the Programme and Communication Manager of CTA, Mr Macdonald Ekemezie, called for collaboration among the relevant stakeholders to ensure that citizens get access to justice.
Meanwhile, various security agencies at the workshop noted some of the limitations in the implementation of the ACLJ and stressed the need for improvement.
They called for more commitment on the part of the relevant stakeholders for better criminal administration system.
However, some of the participants knocked judicial officers for presiding over matters their court lacks jurisdiction to handle.
They also criticised law enforcement agencies for their penchant in arraigning suspects in courts which they know have no jurisdiction to entertain the charge preferred against them, probably to punish them.
The capacity building workshop is supported by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme, ROLAC, and funded by European Union through International IDEA.
End
More Stories
Abia govt spits fire against sponsors of insecurity, fingers opposition
Umuopara killings: Another wake up call on security agencies
Recovery of govt property: Otti receives panel’s report