PRAWA, Stakeholders Advocate Criminal Laws’ Amendment, Strengthening Virtual Courts

PRAWA, Stakeholders Advocate Criminal Laws’ Amendment, Strengthening Virtual Courts

The Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, PRAWA, and some key stakeholders advocating for effective justice administration in the country, have stressed the need for the legislature to hasten the amendment of criminal laws, decriminalization and declassification of minor and petty offences in Nigerian Laws.

Also, PRAWA and the stakeholders strongly recommended the need to strengthen the use of virtual courts.

They made the calls at a press conference and strategy meeting on setting agenda for administration of justice and corrections reforms in Nigeria, on Monday.

At the media parley, Dr. Uju Agomoh, Executive Director of PRAWA, on behalf of the Stakeholders, presented the communiqué issued at the end of a ‘Two-Day High-Level Conference on Decongestion and Corrections Administration In Nigeria,’ held in May.

Part of the communiqué reads: “We urge the government to provide adequate logistics to enable transportation of inmates to courts. We also urge the government to ensure training and retraining of the police and other law enforcement agents with the mandate to arrest and detain, courts and correctional service personnel.

“We are also calling on the government to take steps to ensure funding and budget allocation to stakeholders in the administration of criminal justice especially the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria. We strongly recommend the development of and implementation of diversionary programmes as provided for in the ACJA/ACJL, Child Rights Act and the Nigerian Correctional Service Act.

“We strongly recommend that laws need to be amended to reduce the kind of offenses that necessitate pretrial detention. We urge the government to take steps towards ensuring adequate financial provision for the correctional service to carry out its non-custodial supervision mandate.

“We are deeply concerned that the giving of fine as an option against imprisonment has not been very effective as some offenders of petty crimes are unable to pay the fines therefore recommend the utilization of other non-custodial sanctions. But we strongly encourage the implementation of sections 37 and 38 of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act on setting up the National committee on non-custodial measures.

“We strongly recommend the provision of rehabilitation and reintegration support for inmates; to include opening of bank accounts and provision of ATM cards, linkage with National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and SMEDAN. PRAWA is recommended to keep links with the beneficiaries for follow up support and monitoring. Also, we strongly encourage the adoption of a community-based approach to aid the reintegration of ex-inmates back into society”.

By PRNigeria