The Rule of Law and Empowerment Initiative (also known as Partners West Africa–Nigeria or PWAN) has said that legal aid services, which is constitutionally guaranteed for court users, is still not adequate in the nation’s capital. Programme Manager of PWAN, Barbara Maigari, made the revelation during the public presentation of the findings of the organisation’s court observation research process.
The presentation, which took place on Tuesday, 28th March 2017 in Abuja, was based on recent court observations carried out in the Federal Capital Territory.
According to Maigari, the presentation was made to “compare the findings of the last quarter and the current to understand possible changes and highlight the need for reforms in the judicial sector.”
Maigari stated that this second release of findings of court observations was part of PWAN’s Social Accountability in the Judicial Sector project. She said, “The project seeks to increase civil society’ access to government information as a tool to fight judicial corruption, enhance access to justice and expand the opportunity for citizen’s to engagement with government. The project will also contribute to policy directions by engaging with policy makers in the justice sector.”
Speaking further on the court findings, Maigari observed that although Legal aid was still not adequate for FCT court users, “84% of the time High Courts observed in the FCT sat and 99% of the time the FCT courts observed had support staff.”
Meanwhile, in goodwill message, Executive Director of PWAN, Kemi Okenyodo, thanked the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) for funding the Social Accountability in the Judicial Sector; project, the Chief Judge, and other members of the FCT Judiciary and the Nigerian Bar Association FCT branches for collaborating with PWAN. She also thanked the court observers and supervisors for their work in the field towards ensuring the success of the project.
