By Mercy Onyenweli
For easy and effective implementation of Administration of Criminal Justice Laws, stakeholders are calling for increased budgeting and effective monitoring of disbursement of funds to the appropriate offices in charge.
This is the resolution agreed on from the two days training of stakeholders on ACJL Implementation held recently at the City center of Benin City .
The training which was organized by MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with Cleen Foundation had representatives of the Court, security agencies, Economic Financial Crime Commission, (EFCC), National Population Commission, (NPC) CSOs and the Media in attendance.
Mrs Blessing Abiri, Head of program, MackArthur Foundation , piloted the review and analysis section of the research study on Compliance Level of Administration of Criminal Justice Act\Law Actors (ACJL) stated that the study is aimed to strengthen and improve actors compliance to the provisions of the ACJL in the study states.
“The problem of outdated evidence collection and preservation system was highlighted as an area of concern by stakeholders, thus 62% of Correctional Service personnel and 59% of Court Officials consider this an important problem which points to the need for substantial public Investments in modernized and efficient evidence-gathering tools and crime processing techniques”.
According to Mrs Abiri, the findings of the research work identified key challenges why ACJL Laws implementation have suffered setbacks in some states but after close review, it was agreed that to achieve effective and comprehensive implementation, there should be increased budget and effective monitoring of disbursement of funds across boards.
“The need for a change in funding system, one of the most dominant trends across the study is the problem of huge resources inadequacy across all service portals of the criminal justice system across the focal states”.
“States must reconceptualize the current linkages between actors on the criminal justice processing line to reduce current episodes of delays, based on their specific needs, states must implement appropriate case management”. She said
Speaking also during the two day workshop is Mrs, Blessing Eramon, the Head of Program, Edo State, stressed that the need for training and retraining of key actors is very crucial in achieving successful implementation of the ACJL Laws.
She stressed further on the need for actors to equip and arm themselves with adequate knowledge of ACJL laws to avoid mis interpretation and mis conception of the process.
On his part, the Chairman of CSO Observatory group on ACJL in Benin City, Dr. Bright Oniovoukor pointed out that aside of increased budget and adequate monitoring, the need for synergy between the Police, Correctional service center and the Judiciary should be embraced to enable successful implementation of ACJL in the State.
“Lack of synergy between the actors have also contributed to the gap in implementing the ACJL , so , I am using this opportunity to call for synergy amongst actors to expedite ACJL” he said.
Participants took their turns to commend the organizers of the event and call for follow up training to ensure the aim and objective of ACJL is accomplished.