PPDC Supports LACON with Laptops to Speed Up Justice Delivery

The Public and Private Development Centre(PPDC), has donated 39 laptops to the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria(LACON), to improve legal services and speed up justice delivery for indigent Nigerians.

The equipment was presented in Abuja on Wednesday under the second phase of the Reforming Pre-Trial Detention in Nigeria(RPDN), project.

PPDC Chief Executive Officer, Lucy James Abagi, said the laptops would strengthen LACON’s operations and enable its personnel to respond faster to cases involving people who cannot afford legal representation.

She said the intervention became necessary because more than 70,000 Nigerians remain in correctional centres awaiting trial.

Abagi noted that poverty continues to limit access to justice, especially for people who cannot afford lawyers, court appearances and bail-related legal services.

According to her, technology would help LACON overcome some of its operational challenges by improving communication between its teams across the country.

“Technology helps to reduce time in achieving a particular goal,” Abagi said.

She explained that LACON could use technology to communicate with teams in distant states and respond to urgent cases without unnecessary travel.

PPDC developed the technology component of the intervention with Devon Technologies and a committee established by the LACON leadership.

Abagi also disclosed that PPDC had supported the training and deployment of more than 300 pro bono lawyers and over 50 pro bono receiving police duties across various police stations.

She said the lawyers had handled at least 20,000 cases across locations covered by the programme over the past three years.

However, the PPDC chief executive said more support remained necessary to enable LACON to reach a larger number of detainees and other Nigerians who cannot afford legal representation.

“LACON can do more with more support,” she said, urging development partners, philanthropists and donors to provide additional resources to the Council.

Abagi described the large number of people awaiting trial as a serious concern for Nigeria’s criminal justice system.

“For me, if we have about 70,000 young people within our custodial centres, that’s a lot of problem. In fact, I used to say it’s a state of emergency,” she said.

The Director-General of LACON, Aliyu Bagudu Abubakar, said the Council had made progress in reducing the proportion of inmates awaiting trial.

He said awaiting-trial inmates once accounted for more than 70 per cent of the correctional population. The figure has now dropped to about 52 or 53 per cent.

Abubakar, however, said the reduction remained difficult because new detainees enter correctional centres faster than authorities resolve existing cases.

“As we are moving 10 people from the correctional centres, 11 people or more are getting into the correctional centres by the day,” he said.

He attributed the continuing challenge largely to problems within the criminal justice system.

The LACON director-general commended PPDC and other civil society organisations for supporting the Council’s efforts to reduce the number of awaiting-trial inmates.

He said the laptops would strengthen LACON’s operations and improve its ability to provide legal assistance to vulnerable Nigerians.

Abubakar also appealed to non-governmental organisations and development partners to support the Council with more technology and other resources.

He stressed that stronger legal aid would give more poor and indigent Nigerians an opportunity to secure justice regardless of their financial circumstances.