Child Rights Act: Police Vow To Protect Children’s Legal Rights

The Police Divisional Headquarters, 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.
The Executive Secretary, Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC), Sulayman Dawodu, made the pledge while addressing participants at a one-day interactive session held in Abuja.
He charged Police Divisional Headquarters to work toward achieving international best practices in the administration of criminal justice in the country especially as it regards children and other vulnerable persons.
Dawodu said that the interactive session was targeted at discussing the challenges faced by the Juvenile Welfare Center (JWC) to provide solutions, adding that the resolutions reached will be strictly implemented.
He promised that his committee would assist the Gender Unit of the Police in the FCT as its starting point in line with the mandate of the ACJMC.
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 commissioner 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, the supervisor, 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, embark on periodic training and retraining of JWC personnel, provide modern gadgets and build a juvenile remand home in the FCT as well as female cells and conveniences in the FCT P olice Divisions.