Group moves to Promote Citizens’ Awareness of ACJL
Rule of Law and Accountability, Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), in collaboration with the Anambra State Police Command, has made public a report that is meant to promote citizens’ awareness of the Adminstration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) 2010.
The report tagged: “ Building Stakeholding in Security Provisioning”, is a product of the inauguration and launch of Police Stakeholders Partnership Forum (PSPF), in Anambra on November 27, 2019.
State of the Nation: PDP seeks intervention of UN, EU, France
According to the Executive Director of RULAAC, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, the report which was done with support from Open Society Justice Initiative, will further ensure police compliance with the ACJL in Anambra.
Nwanguma who addressed journalists at the presentation of the report in Lagos, recently, urged citizens to imbibe the virtue of patience, resilience and vigilance, to secure their rights and liberty.
Giving details of the report, the RULAAC boss said: “ We conducted a research in Anambra state to understand the level of awareness and compliance with the ACJL amongst police officers.
One of the findings was that very few police officers knew about the law, and those who have heard about it, have not seen a copy of the law.
You cannot comply with a law you don’t even have access to, so we decided that beyond creating awareness among police officers, citizens also have a role to play in monitoring police compliance with the law. We decided to set up Police Stakeholders Partnership Forum in Anambra state.
“ PSPF was launched by the Anambra Commissioner of Police, CP John Abang, to fill the gap in citizens awareness of the Anambra State Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2010, and to address the deficit in monitoring capacity within communities.
The platform serves as a mechanism for holding the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), personnel to account for rights violations, while growing skills and awareness to ensure prevention and reduction of such violations.
“ Our investigation also revealed that policemen lobby to be posted to Anambra State. When they are transferred out of the state, they are willing to pay huge amount of money, to be redeployed back to the state.
This is because policemen see the state as a goldmine. Citizens are quick to part with money, rather than defend their rights.”
While urging citizens to be more determined in ensuring their rights are respected by police officers, Nwanguma noted that the PSPF has also opened a Case Management Register(CMR).
Explaining what CMR will address, he said: “ we designed a case management register into which cases and complaints are entered.
The CMR provides an opportunity to monitor the progress of cases and complaints. To facilitate this process, we engaged the services of a documentation officer, who receives reports of police abuses and challenges from the field and steps taken by PSPF and other relevant institutions of state to address them. Three major cases of human rights violations have been documented so far and are being tracked.”
