By Okon Okon
The Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), says it will train 50 law graduates on National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and 150 private lawyers for legal aid services in courts across the country.
Mr Kenechukwu Agwu, Senior Programme manager of PPDC, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said 10 corps members would be taken from four states and the FCT.
Agwu said the initiative is to complement Legal Aid Council (LAC)’s efforts in its services to ensure decongestion of Nigerian Correctional Service Centres in the country.
In addition, the PPDC programme manager said the initiative was part of the objectives of the organisation, which was set up to ensure citizens’ participation in the nation’s governance.
“PPDC is a non-profit organisation established in 2003, aiming to work with government to ensure transparency in the procurement system and citizens’ participation in governance.
“Essentially, the aim of setting up the organisation at that time was to make sure that Nigerian citizens become part of the governance process.”
According to him, intervening in judiciary services in Nigeria is one of the focal points of the organisation’s roles in Nigeria’s judicial sector.
He said the objective informed the decision to partner with LAC to ease some challenges of funding and staff in the judiciary.
“Manpower and funding are very critical and I must say the judiciary system is not fully equipped in terms of number, funding and that is why we are also partnering with the Legal Aid Council on our projects.
“We are partnering with them because the Legal Aid Act mandates them to be in charge of provision of legal aid services.
“So in the states where they have three, four, five lawyers, we are looking at recruiting over 150 lawyers, corps members to provide pro bono services across the states to complement legal aid services,” he said
According to him, the organisation has written to the management of NYSC to release 10 lawyers who are currently serving in each state of the federation.
“We’ve written to NYSC and they have agreed to give us 10 lawyers in each of the states who are serving.
“For the one year of their service, they would be working with us full time and we would pay them allowances for their services.
“However, the 150 lawyers we are talking about are lawyers who are doing private practice, who would volunteer to provide pro bono services under our projects,” he explained. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
=========
Edited by Rotimi Ijikanmi
