Nigeria Content Online

The Nigerian Bar
Association has awarded its first Gani Fawehinmi Prize for Human Rights
and Social Justice to an advocacy group, Access to Justice, for its
work in defending the rights of marginalised people and addressing
critical problems in the Nigeria justice system.

In a statement
announcing the award, the Bar said Access to Justice’s efforts were
evident through its legislative reform work which “confront the chronic
and widespread abuses of human rights in Nigeria.”

“AJ has represented
indigent persons who have been unjustly imprisoned, tortured,
brutalised or otherwise oppressed, and provided services to families
whose relatives have been extrajudicially murdered.

“The list includes
releasing persons who were in prolonged under-trial detention for 13
years… and bringing an international litigation against Nigeria for
its horrific record of abusive policing,” the statement read.

It also mentioned
the organisation’s “extensive advocacy” leading to the passage of the
new coroner laws in Lagos and Cross River State in 2007, which now
enable families of victims of extralegal executions establish truths
concerning those killings.

The NBA also said
its judgment enforcement work has ensured court orders and judgments
and awards of compensation for human rights violations are complied
with and respected.

“AJ and the NBA
have collected information of the financial/liquid assets of many
public agencies to make available to lawyers who want to enforce,
(through garnishee proceedings), judgments obtained against these
public agencies,” the statement said.

Access to Justice’s
executive director, Joseph Otteh, said “we were very surprised by the
award”, citing several other people and organisations “doing
extraordinary work” worthy of the award.

Defending the voiceless

AJ’s priority “has
never been to capture the spotlight at any cost but to defend the rule
of law, strengthen the safeguards against torture and extrajudicial
killings, and ensure the courts understand Nigeria’s problems and play
a major role in ameliorating them,” he said.

He said the
organisation, which was founded in 1999, would strive to uphold the
values Gani Fawehinmi lived and stood for, by improving upon their
effectiveness, efficiency, and capacity to impact the lives of
“browbeaten” Nigerians subjected to daily indignities.

The NBA’s first
vice president and present chairman of the NBA Human Rights Institute
(HRI), Ikeazor Akaraiwe, said the Gani Fawehinmi Prize is aimed at
honouring and recognising “the path-breaking and inspirational work of
Gani Fawehinmi, Senior Advocate of the Masses.

“The prize will be
awarded annually on the decision of a prize panel to a person or
institution in Nigeria which has attained distinction through
consistent boldness, courage, independence, innovation, and risk taking
in the defence of the rule of law, upholding accountable government and
defending the rights of the voiceless,” Mr Aakaraiwe said.

Nominees for the
2010 Gani Fawehinmi Prize included Femi Falana, Asma’u Joda, Sadaatu
Mahdi, Tunji Gomez, Bukhari Bello, amongst others.