The Public Defenders’ Office (PDO) has trained owned personnel and that of its partners on conflict resolution with a view to addressing raising cases of dispute in Kano state.
The Programme Manager, Barbara Maigari, said 40 per cent of the cases received by the PDO in Kano were disputes that could be resolved without necessarily going to court.
Barbara explained that 20 per cent of the cases they received have been successfully resolved, while the remaining 80 per cent were still ongoing.
She said, “We have realised that people do come to our offices asking for different forms of assistance and some of the matters they brought to us are not litigation. It is in view of this that we decided to train our staff on alternative dispute resolution so that they can help in resolving such cases amicably and without going to the court of law.
“Though public defenders’ office handles only criminal cases but we find it necessary to give rooms for resolving dispute so that it will speed up proceedings in the courts. There are disputes that suppose to be handled at family and community levels,” she said.
One of the participants, Hajiya Safiya Yahaya, commended the public defenders’ office for organising the training, hoping that she would know more about dispute resolution at the end of the training.
Another participant, Umar Jimeta from the Action Democratic Group (ADG) said, “I hope to develop my skills in mediation after the training. The training will add value to my knowledge on dispute resolution.”
