FG Launches Court Duty Solicitor Scheme Targeted at Offering Free Legal Services to Indigent Nigerians

Alex Enumah

As part of efforts to implement the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, the federal government yesterday launched the Court Duty Solicitor Scheme (CDSS), targeted at offering free legal services to indigent Nigerians in the country.

Executive Secretary of the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC), Mr Sulayman Dawodu, speaking at the launch in Abuja, stated that the scheme would ensure speedy trials and decongest detention facilities in the country as well as reduce the dockets of judges across the country.

Dawodu said his committee started with the Police Station Duty Solicitor Scheme (PDSS) in January in about 16 police divisions in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), “placing lawyers in police stations to render legal services to indigents and those who don’t have legal representatives to go through their interviews, secure bails and to ensure their welfare and protection of their rights.”

He, however, expressed the committee’s worry that suspects are charged to court with no lawyers to represent them.

Dawodu said, “We were concerned and wanted to fill in that gap to ensure that those charged to court also have legal representation at their first appearance. We believe that will obliterate the necessity of remanding in the custody of people who are not able to get bail, to have someone with a legal voice to speak for them and apply for their bail.”

According to him, the scheme will help suspects on how to plead at arraignment. However, he disclosed that court-duty lawyers would not be involved in full-blown trials of suspects.

A lawyer, Uche Nwora, involved in the scheme, told journalists he and other lawyers had handled close to 50 cases, securing bail for suspects charged to court.

He explained that some people are brought to the Magistrate or Upper Area courts confused by either the ICPC or the EFCC, and “when we got to know of it, we moved in there to represent them in filing an application for their bail and sometimes, negotiate for their administrative bail with the authorities on behalf of the suspects who are not represented by a lawyer.”