‘Paralegals necessary in legal aid strategy’
Mrs. Joy Bob-Manuel is the DG, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria (LACON), in this interview she speaks about international development partners, the need for sustaining prison decongestion projects, paralegals, LACON’s collaboration with other organisations an
There has always been the challenge of funding how does LACON manage? At the time I came in there were many donor agencies practically fighting over themselves to help the whole justice sector on anticorruption and drugs, such as international development partners e.g. World Bank, EU, J4A, under the British Council, UNODC with PRAWA as consultant.
The various donor agencies also have time limit. What then happens when these projects end by effluxion of time?
There must be time lag for projects - UNODC is for five years, World Bank three years, presently we have Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RULAC) sponsored by EU for four years, which is a new project. That is what we are discussing with all the agencies who have been fortunate to have the help of donor agencies, they must learn to sustain. Sustainability, for example, the World Bank project, actually helped us to activate our sustainability. The project was in 20 LGAs in Katsina State and by the end of the project, they were able to sustain five projects and the LGA chairmen committed to only three, so we have a problem with our political class that they do not value projects like that.
One of my fulfilling projects is called police duty solicitor. We station our lawyers at police stations for those who cannot afford lawyers when arrested. We had the help from one of the international development partners from the USA and they have left and we are still in the process of maintaining it. So fortunately, we have been working with the police in some states. Police will refuse that a lawyer should be present during interrogation, through the years we wanted to make it a Force Order. In 2017 police amended their Force Order 20 to include lawyers. Hence lawyer must be present while suspect is interrogated to remove frivolous cases coming before the court. So, whether LACON or not a lawyer can be called upon while interrogating an offender at every police station.
A number of the Awaiting Trial Inmates (ATI) in the prison facilities are those who have actually been granted bail but are unable to perfect the bail conditions. How does LACON assist these set of people?
The practice directions from the chief judges (CJs) can stop this. They should issue practice directions like in Abuja, the CJ asked Area Court judges not to issue stringent bail conditions. A very poor person with no means of livelihood is not likely to know any civil servant which is sometimes part of the conditions for the bail.
Secondly, as little as N3,000 or N4,000 can keep someone in prison after he has been granted bail. Here the solution is payment of the fine by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), philanthropists and LACON. When we go on prison visits, that is what we do. When the list is brought, you check your pockets and you can pay N100, 000 for 10 inmates.
Bail also has two types, you are on bail but it says you must return what you stole. You have been released on bail but there is a conviction also that says you must return what you stole.
So, when such thing is attached to a bail, you find out that many people cannot pay. Even philanthropists cannot pay, they prefer the little sum of N10, 000 or N20, 000. When we come on radio, we have had philanthropists pay some of these fines.
What is the origin of Legal Aid Council?
Legal Aid was conceptualized in the Western world. The first lawyers that schooled in the UK and USA like Chief Ikeazor and Solomon Lar brought the idea when they came back and formed the first Legal Aid association. Then they started convincing Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, (as he then was) to an extent that they made him visit the prison and saw that where a man stole louvres he had languished in prison for about five years. These lawyers were the ones taking up the legal aid cases and eventually in 1976 a decree that established the LACON was enacted. But the LACON itself started in 1978.
You became the DG in December 2010, in what state did you meet the LACON then?
I met a new Bill to repeal the 1976 decree but it has not been harmonized by the two Houses and I quickly moved to do that. I got to meet the Chairman Senate Committee on Justice and the Chairman of the House Committee for Justice and it was harmonized and assented to in June 2011 by the 6th Assembly. The new LACON 2011 Act now replaced the 1976 Decree and the new 2011 Act has landmarks as it expanded the scope of LACON. I met just 80 lawyers and I realised that the mandate of the Council cannot be met with 80 lawyers. So, I took steps to ask for permission from regulatory agencies and added 200 lawyers to the LACON. By 2012 we had about 280 lawyers altogether.
We also had another challenge, for over 30 years, the lawyers were not handling core civil matter. Section 8 of the 2011 Act gave us additional responsibility to take up civil matters - mediation, Alternative Dispute Resolution and other fields. In the new 2011 Act, we can also take up matters in marriage, landlord / tenant, financial and land matter. We needed to build capacity for these very important sections of the law. I was fortunate that a new project was being undertaking by the World Bank through Japanese funding entitled “Access to Justice in Civil Matters by the Poor.” So, it helped us build capacity for our lawyers to be trained in Civil matters. Today, the civil justice department is one of the best departments in LACON, everybody is seeking mediation from us.
What is the LACON 2011 Act say on capital punishment?
That is the scope, your Act tells you what you can do so the 2011 Act expanded them. Capital offences, Armed Robbery, hitherto tribunals were established to hear armed robbery cases, gradually tribunals were dissolved and Courts are now hearing armed robbery cases. Now LACON is mandated to defend capital offences and armed robbery cases, see Section 8 and the schedule thereto.
How do you get experience lawyer to handle capital offences and armed robbery cases since they carry death penalty?
We have lawyers in the LACON who have spent over 20 years, so we have capable hands. A lawyer that has spent 20 years should be able to take up any capital case. We also have an MOU with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and we do not allow young lawyers to handle such cases. Even the courts frown at it for a new wig to take up such cases.
The issue of paralegals is also novel. How did we get to the of paralegals?
Paralegal is a necessity for legal aids, when I came on board, I only heard of paralegals through an NGO in two states Bauchi and Kano but it was in a civil matter so they understood that they have to work with us. So, what we have seen it that we need foot soldiers to help lawyers achieve their success in representing the poor. Foot soldiers are the paralegals, they are not lawyers but have learnt the rudiments of law and how to mediate and the skills in ADR, and therefore they can help to resolve matters and when they cannot go further, they have to make sure that matter goes up to the lawyer in LACON.