The Executive Director of the Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), Dr Uju Agomoh, on Wednesday, called for a declaration of the state of emergency in Nigeria’s justice system.
Agomoh declared the system “stinks” and needs immediate overhauling.
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She stated this while training police, correctional and judicial officers on restorative justice in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The session was part of human rights and trust-building training organised by the PRAWA for the security agencies, youths and members of the community.
She said Nigerians have lost confidence in the justice system because “it is not working and slow.”
She said: “To declare a state of emergency for the criminal justice system is important at the moment.
“For us to have a system which is making justice delayed and it is taking so long to confirm whether somebody committed offence or not, is a problem.
“So, we think we need to do the right thing and I gave the example of Rwanda. Let us begin; everybody has a role to play and we can do it.”
She, however, called for the adoption of restorative justice as a way of restoring confidence and promoting peace between offenders and victims.
“Basically, what restorative justice gives to us is like giving us back what we used to know within our traditional justice system.
“Every time, there is an offence, there are certain things that have happened; the victims have been affected, the community in one way or the other have been affected, as well as the offender.
“This restorative justice helps us to pull the victims, the community and the offenders.
“When the offences occurred, sometimes what the victim want is ‘why was I the one that was attacked; was there anything I did?’
“So, it provides the opportunity for the offender to apologize. It will help us to give more quality to justice administration.”
In her address, the State Chief Judge, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu, called on stakeholders to put pressure on the executive in order to revamp the judicial system.
Dipeolu who was represented by a High Court Judge, Justice Abiodun Akinyemi, accused the executive of “lacking the political will” to reform the judicial system.
