By TINA TIMOTHY, Lagos

Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has unveiled an ‘Access to Justice Project’ for the poor and most vulnerable groups in target states. The states are Lagos, Rivers, Anambra and Kaduna.

RULAAC, a non-profit, non-governmental human rights advocacy organisation, disclosed this during a Press Conference on Thursday, April 14, 2022, to mark the inauguration its new office in Lagos.

According to RULAAC’s Executive Director, Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma, “RULAAC is implementing a “Community Access to Justice and Criminal Justice Interactive project’’ with support from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

“The general objective of this project is to facilitate the coordination and projection of the voices of communities affected by insecurity and promote their involvement in designing and implementing workable solutions to insecurity in their communities and enhance access to justice to poor and most vulnerable groups who are disproportionately affected by a dysfunctional criminal justice system.”

The specific objectives of the project according to the statement are: “To build the capacities of citizens to monitor and report incidents and human rights violations; to amplify the narratives and voices of communities affected by insecurity to ensure they are involved in identifying and implementing workable solutions to insecurity in their communities; and to enhance access to justice to the poor and more vulnerable victims of police abuse through increasing the capacity of activists for timely interventions and engagement with relevant police authorities.”

The statement stated further: “One of the activities under this project is to recruit and train human rights monitors and legal officers to monitor, receive complaints and intervene on timely basis and accurately report cases of human rights violations focusing mainly on the poor and more vulnerable groups in society. This Press Conference would be used to publicise this opportunity and to invite the poor and most vulnerable victims of police abuse to take advantage of the opportunity. The target states are Anambra, Kaduna, Lagos and Rivers States.”

Nwanguma however said that following the recent spate of attacks by bandits and terrorists in Kaduna and the northern parts of Nigeria, the group was still considering including Kaduna as one of the target states.

Other speakers at the event included Executive Director, Spaces for Change, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri; Founder, Women Rights and Health Project, Bose Ironsi and Samuel Akpologun Esq, of RULAAC.

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