Table 17: - Legal Aid Cases:2016
Nature
of
Granted Completed
Cases
Criminal
8,042
3,452
Civil
3,578
2,698
PDSS
150
150
Total
11,770
6,300
Source: Legal Aid Council, Nigeria
LEGAL AID COUNCIL FIRST QUARTER 2017 STATISTICAL REPORT
CASES
GRANTED
COMPLETED
PENDING
CRIMINAL
CIVIL
TOTAL
1,613
971
2,584
905
722
1,627
708
249
957
The above statistics of cases is as obtained from the zonal, states, Centre offices nationwide as at
2017.More reports of cases handled in the first quarter are still awaited at the LACON headquarters
statistics unit.
7thApril
CHALLENGES
The greatest challenge is funding. The Council lacks adequate funding to meet its obligation for
ensuring access to justice to indigent Nigerians scattered in 36 states of the federation including the Capital
Territory. Nigerians will soon have increased access to justice through the Legal Aid Council and this will in
turn lead to more Awaiting Trial Persons being released, leading to the desired prison decongestion if the
urgent needs of the Council are addressed;
Increased reflective Federation Appropriation
Infrastructure
Mass personnel recruitment.
PRISON Decongestion Initiative-this is a core mandate of the Council, but it’s obvious the Council
lacks the capacity to represent all awaiting trial persons in Nigeria, a lot of private practitioners who wish to
partner with the Council to decongest the prisons need to be paid a minimum sum for transport and court
processes. No money has been appropriated by Government for the Council to effectively tackle this problem.
One key challenge is the lack of lawyers willing to serve in NORTH East Nigeria due to the Boko
Haram insurgency.
The Legislature
In Nigeria, the Senate and House of Representatives (the two houses of the National
Assembly) have committees on human rights, judiciary and legal matters with oversight
function on national human rights institutions and other government agencies to ensure the
effective promotion and protection of human rights. The National Assembly also has a
specific responsibility for the domestication of all international instruments.
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