Administration of criminal justice act to be translated into Yoruba

The administration of criminal justice act (ACJA) is to be translated into Yoruba for the message to get to the grassroots and Yoruba speaking communities in the country.

This was disclosed by the Executive Director, CLEEN Foundation, Mr Gad Peter, during a two-day seminar held in Ilọrin, the Kwara state capital.

Represented by the Programme Officer of CLEEN, Mrs Chigozirim Okoro, the executive director said the project is coming after the successful translation of the act into Hausa by civil society observatories in Jigawa state.

According to him, the whole essence of the project is to ensure that the innovative provisions of the ACJA acts are implemented in Kwara and Nigeria as a whole and complied with by duty bearers.

He said “We know the challenges but we are interested in the solution and with the progress we have made, Kwara will be among the leading states in ACJA implementation.

“We already have the act translated in Hausa by a civil society observatory in Jigawa state. Now it is being translated into Yoruba in Kwara for the first time in the country, also driven by those that we have established here.

“When the Yoruba version is out, it will be used to engage people at the various communities for the message to get to those that really need it. Ignorance is part of our problem and what you don’t know you cannot use”, he noted.

He said the level of awareness from their experience in Kwara is 4 out of 10.

The executive director said it is when the implementation begins that changes begin to be noticeable.

“And you will no longer see the usual high number of people in cells, judges and lawyers will conduct themselves well in court and improvement within the criminal justice value chain”, he added.