Child Rights Act: Police state commitment to protecting children’s legal right

Police Divisional Headquarters in Abuja has promised to protect the legal rights of children in conflict with the law embedded in the Child Rights Act as captured in Section 452 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.

Addressing participants at a one-day interactive session held in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC), Mr Sulayman Dawodu, charged Police Divisional Headquarters to work toward achieving international best practices in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, especially as it regards children and other vulnerable persons.

According to him, the interactive session was targeted at discussing the challenges faced by the Juvenile Welfare Center (JWC) to provide solutions and added that the resolutions reached will be strictly implemented.

The ACJMC boss promised that his Committee will assist the Gender Unit of the Police in the FCT, as its starting point in line with the mandate of the ACJMC permits.

The Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, Sunday Babaji, in a message delivered by CSP Funmi Kolawole, commended the ACJMC for the timely intervention in the improvement of the FCT Police JWC and the administration of the criminal justice system.

The FCT Commissioner of Police further stressed the need for open communication on the challenges faced by other Police Divisions in the line of their duties.

Earlier in his welcome address and setting the tone for the deliberations, the supervisor of the ACJMC Police Duty Solicitor Scheme (PDSS), Mrs Genevieve Ike Johnson Esq, highlighted some issues on juvenile, sexual and gender-based offences encountered in her line of duty.

The challenges, according to her, include; “under-reporting of incidences, survivor- blame and further traumatization while engaged with law enforcement agencies, multiple interviews of survivors, settlements of serious criminal offences, delay in provisions of medical reports under police watch, and limited engagements from the government and civil societies on JWC issues among many others”.

The ACJMC and participants at the interactive session resolved to build one-room offices for JWC units across FCT Police Divisions, periodic training and retraining of JWC personnel, provision of modern gadgets and building of a juvenile remand home in the FCT as well as female cells and conveniences in the FCT Police Divisions.

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