PPDC offers free legal services to 350 inmates in FCT, Nasarawa, others

The Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) has pledged to provide annually at least 350 lawyers for free legal services to secure the release of 350 awaiting trial inmates languishing at prison facilities in the parts of the country.

The executive officer of PPDC, Jibrin Shittu, disclosed this while explaining aspects of the company in the state during the access to justice town hall meeting held in Lafia, saying access to justice is fundamental and targeted at straightening court administration and court management practice leading to moral, efficient and accountable cost, adding that its target is 1,750 inmates awaiting trial across those three states, including the FCT.

Shittu, who was represented by Mrs Ife Olatunji-David, Senior Programme Manager for Governance at the PPDC, added that the free legal services to awaiting trial inmates would also help to reduce prison congestion within the areas of their operations including the FCT, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kaduna states.

He said the call for a conducive atmosphere to enable them to render free legal services to liberate them from the clutches of incarceration was due to a lack of defence counsel to prove their innocence.

Earlier, the Emir of Lafia, Justice Sidi Bage (rtd), blamed judges in Nasarawa State for allowing counsel to usurp their powers.