By Amos Aar
THE SENIOR Legal Advisor, Lawyers Alert, Victor Eboh, has disclosed that under the Benue Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL), women are guaranteed the right to stand as sureties to bail a suspect.
Eboh disclosed this at a dialogue organised by Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Network Cluster with support from USAID-Scale Project on the ACJL and Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law (VAPPL) implementation across project states on Tuesday in Makurdi.
He added that section 171, subsection 3 empowers women to stand as sureties against the old practice where women were denied the right to do so.
He said that the law also empowers the Monitoring Committee of ACJL to ensure that criminal matters were speedily dealt with in order to drastically decongest the criminal cases in courts.
“Persons awaiting trial should as far as possible not to be detained in prisons.
“The law prohibits the police to arrest by proxy according to section 9 of the law.
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“Section 10, subsection 2 of the law prohibits the police to arrest in civil matters or matters of breach of contract,” Eboh said.
He further stated that the law encourages police officers to ensure that statements were written, audio and video recorded in line with section 17, subsection 4 to avoid trial within trial in case a suspect denied or distanced self from the initial statement.
The Senior Legal Officer of Lawyers Alert, Solumtochukwu Ozobulu in her address of welcome, said that they want the ACJL of Benue State to be effectively implemented in the state, emphasising that they want the law to achieve its purpose of enactment.
Ozobulu stated that the objective of the meeting was to share and dialogue with ACJL monitoring committees to ensure the discharge of their mandate towards the efficacy of the law and improve justice outcomes for survivors of abuse.
The Benue State chairperson, Nigeria League of Women Voters (NILOWV), Mrs Irene Awunah-Ikyegh, who was represented by the Coordinator of NILOWV in Guma LGA, Mrs Ruth Kpengwa, stated the resolve of the association to contribute to all the concerns of the female gender especially SGBV.
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The Benue State Comptroller of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Mary Oche, encouraged speedy dispensation of cases in order to decongest correctional centres across the country.
The North Central Focal Person of Lawyers Alert, Dr Victoria Daaor, disclosed that section 40 of the VAPPL provides that victims of SGBV were entitled to comprehensive, psychological, social and legal services by government agencies.
