The European Union is to partner the state government in implementation of criminal justice law in the state.
The focal Person, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption of the European Union, Mrs. Josephine Ona disclosed this at the opening ceremony of a one week workshop for administration of criminal justice law in the
state for Judges, Magistrates, Prosecutors and Defence Lawyers in Awka.
Mrs. Ona explained that ROLAC is a four year programme of the European Union that aims at enhancing good governance in Nigeria by
strengthening the rule of law and curbing corruption.
She commended the State Judiciary for adopting the law in 2010 and revealed that a survey conducted by the European Union this year to ascertain the level of understanding and compliance to the law by lawyers, shows that it is very low, prompting the European Union to initiate ROLAC to build their capacity on the knowledge of the law so as to comply with it in the discharge of their duties.
Declaring the workshop open, the Chairman, Anambra State Justice Sector Reform Team, Justice Peter Obiora explained that the workshop was fixed to improve the capacity and knowledge of stakeholders involved in criminal justice administration.
He expressed the hope that at the end, there will be visible improvement in trial of criminal cases in courts, better police treatment of citizens in the course of their work and protection of society from crime.
In his remarks, the Controller of Prisons, Anambra State Command, Barrister Emmanuel Nwakaeze challenged the workshop to address issues that
lead to congestion of the prisons, such as stringent bail, trumped up charges, excessive adjournment of cases, among others in the interest of the state.
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