36 out of 40 magistrates and Presidents of Grade A Customary courts in Oyo State have applied community service punishment, indicating that 90 per cent of the state’s judicial officers have utilised the community service as a form of punishment for minor offences in line with the vision to provide a much-needed solution to the menace of overcrowding and congestion plaguing Nigeria prisons.
And in three years; between January 2018 and March 2021, 447 offenders of minor offences who would have contributed to prison congestion if there was no option of community service, were sentenced under the community service punishment scheme.
This was revealed by the Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), Ibadan during its annual stakeholder’s review and agenda-setting workshop for relevant actors in the community service punishment scheme in Ibadan on Thursday.
While giving a report on monitoring of community service punishment by JPDC in Ibadan at the programme which held at J. Travers Place in the JDPC premises, the programme officer, community service programme at JDPC, Olajumoke Adelabu Esq, stated that the scheme in its three years has achieved its objectives of keeping non-serious offenders out of prison by achieving the innovative step of having 90 per cent of judicial officers in the state, applying the community service scheme of punishment for minor offences.
According to her, the remaining 10 per cent that has not utilised the system did not do so based on some peculiar situations in their domain and not because they do not believe in the scheme.
“You may wonder why the remaining 10 per cent have not utilised community service. I want to assure you that it is not a deliberate act. Several factors come to play in this; some of which include the geographical location of certain courts, nature of offences placed before certain courts, the low crime rate in few magisterial districts, out of court settlements among others. These and many more are reasons why some of the judicial officers were unable to utilise community service.
“On objective two, I am also delighted to state that a functional data bank system was set up and installed at the central registry of the community service unit and community service officers were adequately trained on how to make use of the data bank and how it works. The data bank has since been used to properly keep track of every offender who has passed through the community service punishment scheme,” she said.
She explained that the figure of people sentenced to community service is higher than 447 because the judiciary started the compilation of figures in July 2017, adding between January and November 2020, 90 offenders of minor offences were sentenced to community service.
She stated that one major challenge faced by the scheme is inadequate funding and lack of budgetary allocation from the executive arm of government, adding that “it is our hope that with vigorous advocacy, this challenge would be resolved in the nearest future.
JDPC Ibadan further announced that it is gradually moving backstage in the implementation of the community service punishment scheme in Oyo State, adding that in the upcoming fourth stage, the project seeks to achieve technical support to Oyo State authorities especially the judiciary to consolidate the community service scheme.
“Be at the driving seat in replicating community service scheme in other states of the southwest, serve as a resource centre for other JDPCs and CSOs that wish to replicate community service scheme in other states, facilitate the creation of a psycho-social support system for offenders of minor offences to counsel offenders and continue with high-level advocacy, lobbying and brokering relationships with different stakeholders towards sustainability and ownership of the project,” JDPC stated.
The Deputy Chief Registrar, Probate and Community Service of the Oyo State Judiciary, Mrs O.A. Ogunrin, also gave reports of the three years activities of the scheme from the judiciary angle on the implementation of the community service punishment scheme in Oyo State.
Stakeholders expressed appreciation to the Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Munta Ladipo Abimbola, who was described as a pillar of support for the scheme and who made it possible not only for it to take off but to survive and be a success.
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