Some stakeholders in the judiciary sector have underscored the need to decongest Nigerian prisons using access to justice projects.
The diverse stakeholders expressed their concern on Tuesday in Abuja at a parley on access to justice.
They spoke at the: “Access to Justice parley and joint inauguration of the Court Administration and Case Management, and Reforming Pre-Trial Detention in Nigeria phase II.”
Prof. Akinseye George, President Centre for Social Studies, said the number one problem of the criminal justice system in Nigeria was delay, adding that the major reason for the delay was lack of effective pretrial case management.
George said: “Effective pre-trial case management would create a situation where the judge, the prosecutor, the witnesses and all the parties, including the complainant would have agreed on the timetable for the trial before the trial begins.
“But in Nigeria, we don’t conduct effective pretrial 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 pretrial case management.
“So what the Public and Private Development Centre is doing in collaboration with the US Embassy is to begin to build the capacity of the Nigerian legal system to conduct effective pre-trial case management before trials commence.”
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George said without pre-trial, 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, Jubril Shittu, said over 70 percent of the Nigerian inmates population were awaiting trial.
He explained that Access to Justice projects were aimed at ensuring that the average individual had the assurance that justice is not delayed or denied.
Shittu said: “That they have a fair chance at justice and that justice is transparent.
“We want to see that those awaiting trial, over 70,000 in the correction facilities across the country, we want to see the numbers reduced.
“We don’t want to just be building more correctional facilities.
“We also want to achieve a reduction in the number of correctional facilities.”
According to Shittu, the PPDC was established 20 years ago and its vision has been to see that citizens benefit from good governance, effective institutions and accountable and transparent institutions.
Similarly, the Board Chairman, PPDC, 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 the PPDC, said the service was partnering with the Centre to improve on it performance.
Nababa said: “PPDC is partnering with the Nigerian Correctional Service in the development and deployment of Corrections Information Management System 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.”
The Controller General was represented by Gimba Dumbulwa, Assistant Controller, Custody of the Service.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the programme was organised by the Public and Private Development Centre in collaboration with the Government of the United States of America.