A non-governmental organisation, Partners West Africa Nigeria (PWAN), has advocated the stationing lawyers at police stations across the country to help provide legal services, advise to citizens or suspects.
Speaking on Monday in Abuja during a one-day training of police duty solicitor scheme (PDSS) for lawyers, PWAN’s Programme Assistant, Nkem Okereke, said there are many pre-trial cases at police stations because most of the citizens and suspects do not know their rights and do not have access to lawyers.
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She said some police officers do not know how to protect and promote human rights hence the need for duty solicitors to be stationed in police stations to intervene and enlighten them.
Okereke noted that the training was to enlighten the duty solicitors and police on what they need to do at the police stations under the PDSS programme so that citizens who do not have business being detained are not be detained.
On his part, the Head of Surveillance, Garki Police Station, DSP Nuhu Shuaibu Ibrahim, noted that the training would go a long way in intimating the solicitors and police officers on the best way to collaborate and carry out their services to protect the rights of citizens brought to stations.
He urged the incoming duty solicitors to create a proper relationship with the police officers at the station so that there would be cooperation in carrying out their duties and protecting the citizens.
Speaking to journalists, the Director General, Legal Aid Council, Mr Aliyu Abubakar, said the council has a mandate to ensure that indigent in the society have access to justice through the provision of free legal services
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