The Franklin Jr. Foundation has announced no fewer than 90 inmates in different correctional centres in Abia State are to benefit from its free legal services.
The foundation’s Legal Secretary, Adaugo Alogor, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia Tuesday.
Alogor spoke on the sideline of the organization’s maiden stakeholders’ meeting.
She said that the foundation was working in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Nigerian Bar Association, adding that the targeted inmates included those who could not afford legal representation for themselves.
Alogor also said that the prospective beneficiaries were 10 from Arochukwu, 25 from Aba and 56 from Umuahia.
She said that arrangement had been concluded for the commencement of the programme.
She said that the group had already assembled a team of lawyers who, she said, had expressed their readiness for the Pro Brono (free) service.
According to her, the group would plead their case, secure bail and represent them at the court sittings.
“We have a team of lawyers and we hope to recruit more lawyers with similar passion to save humanity.
“We have a team of lawyers and we hope to recruit more with similar passion to save humanity,” she said.
Alogor further said that the foundation had visited the correctional centres and collected the inmates’ relevant data.
She said the foundation would help to ensure they lived a law-abiding life through rehabilitation and skill acquisition after their release “to stop them from going back to a life of crime”.
She said that the group would seek the collaboration and support of the Controller of Correctional Centres of states and the key stakeholders in the criminal justice system.
Alogor said that the foundation was starting the project in Abia with a vision to spread it to all the correctional centres in the country.
She said: “Most inmates in the correctional centres are very poor.
“They can’t afford legal representation but they need it. We know that this is a huge task.
“The goal is to extend this project to all states in Nigeria in order to decongest the correctional centres.
“We will also be educating the masses about their rights and reduce the prevalence of crime and ensure the future is save for all, irrespective of who you are.
“The aim of the foundation is to evangelize and usher people into the kingdom of God through various programmes.”
The State Coordinator of NHRC, Uche Nwokocha, commended the US-based foundation for expanding its human rights services to Nigeria.
Nwokocha, a lawyer, who decried the congestion in the country’s correctional centres, said that Abia was the first to benefit from the programme.
She expressed the commission’s preparedness to collaborate with the foundation to promote access to justice.
One of the lawyers recruited for the project, Onwumere Enyinnaya, said they were ready and determined for the implementation.
“We are very ready to execute the programme of the foundation.
“If you go to our correctional centres there are so many who shouldn’t be there, but they are there because our judicial system has failed them,” Enyinnaya said.
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