The Executive Director of the Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action PRAWA, Dr. Uju Agomoh has enumerated some of the major tangible outcomes of the ‘Speeding-Up Criminal Justice Project in Enugu State’. The project being piloted in Enugu State is supported by Justice for All J4A Programme of the Department for International Department of the United Kingdom Government DFID and managed by PRAWA.

Speaking at a Consultative Forum on Enhancing Witness Attendance to Court in Enugu State, one of the interventions of one of the six action areas of the project held in Enugu 18th February, 2013, Dr. Agomoh said the project started in 2011. The Enugu Justice Sector institutions in March 2012 identified priority areas needed to focus on in order to enhance the quality and speed of delivering criminal justice in the state.

Dr. Agomoh enumerated the six priority areas to include:

• Speeding-up effective criminal investigations.
• Speeding-up the prosecution process.
• Speeding-up court trial process.
• Enhancing transportation of remand prisoners to court
• Improving the attendance rate of witnesses in criminal cases and enhancing legal representation for remand prisoners.

Project One which is speeding-up effective criminal investigations is anchored by the Nigerian Police Force has witnessed series of training workshops for both the senior and mid level officers on investigation, interview and crime scene management skills. Also trainings of senior police officers on oversight functions of investigations and on case management have been completed. The renovation of Case Management Unit of the Enugu Police Command has been completed and the supply of hardware for the CMS Unit is starting soon. This Command has received the donations of several investigating police officers’ toolkits to enhance their field operations, she said.

Dr. Agomoh said that Project two which focuses on speeding-up the prosecution process is run in collaboration of Ministry of Justice, Enugu State. The Case Management System of the Ministry has been well resourced and supported by the project and is operating at its peak. The MOJ and Nigerian Police Forum was facilitated by the project and tangible interface between NPF and MOJ has began. Under the project, the development of Prosecutors’ Handbook is nearing completion after successful review of the draft manuscripts by the stakeholders. A Financial Management System and Process otherwise called Resource Gap Analysis Workshop has been held for the Ministry of Justice.

Project three Dr. Agomoh said is speeding-up court trial process and is being executed in conjunction with the Enugu State Judiciary ESJ. She said the project is looking at the causes of adjournments especially in criminal cases and to ensure that accused persons are in courts. She said the project has achieved donation of motorbikes to Court Bailiffs to speed-up distributions of court summons, renovation of the Case Management Unit of the ESJ waiting for the supply of hardware to commence. Court Workers’ Handbook to enhance their efficiency is being developed under this project and modelling of Court 7 as model court is being executed.

In the Project four which targets enhancing legal representation for remand prisoners is jointly executed by Nigerian Legal Aid Council, Nigerian Bar Associations and Nigerian Prisons Service, Dr. Agomoh said that the intervention strives to created updated data of all Awaiting Trial Persons in all the prisons in Enugu State and provide pro-bono legal services to them. Dr. Agomoh said that already, over 67 ATPs have been linked to pro bono lawyers since the project commenced.

Project five which is working on improving the attendance rate of witnesses in criminal cases commenced in March 2012 to end June 2013. She said that the project has created several behaviour change communication BCC materials to educate the witnesses so as to begin to attend courts again. The project strives to create proper updating and tracking of witness in criminal matters. According to Dr. Agomoh, already, PRAWA is working with a coalition of CSOs and NGOs in the state and Ministry of Justice to sponsor a bill in the State House of Assembly on Witness Welfare and Protection, adding that the Consultative Forum on Attendance of Witness to Court in Enugu State is one of the major outputs of the projects.

The sixth project under the ‘Speeding-Up Criminal Justice Project in Enugu State is enhancing transportation of remand prisoners to court. This anchored by Nigerian Prisons Service. Dr. Agomoh said that one of the major achievements of this project is the successful completion and launching of one of the best Case Managements Units in Africa on 30th June, 2012 for the Nigerian Prisons Service in Enugu. Concluding, Dr. Agomoh said that the Controller General of Nigerian Prisons Ohinoyi Ibrahim Zakari has directed that the like of CMS Unit piloted in Enugu Prisons under this project be replicated in other prisons in Nigeria.