NAN-H-115
Sensitisation
By Edith Nwapi
Abuja, Nov. 24, 2016 (NAN) The Legal Aid Council of Nigeria (LAC) on Thursday staged a street walk in Abuja to sensitise the public
about its services.
The Director General of the Council, Mrs Joy Bob-Manuel, said the Council purposely went on awareness to coincide with its 40th anniversary.
She said “it is an ongoing thing, we will always create awareness, it is extensive and not a one-day awareness.
“The press should also come to our aid by disseminating information to the poor that there are lawyers designated by Federal Government to help them in any matter if they can’t afford to pay a lawyer.
“We must always create awareness on rights violation to the grassroots to teach them what constitutes rights violation.
“LAC is a government institution that pays for the justice sector which represents the poor of Nigeria.”
Bob-Manuel said LAC was an institution which the poor could rely on for free legal services.
She explained that government had paid lawyers of the Council to offer services to the indigent and the lawyers were ready to perform their mandate.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that late Mr Chimezie Ikeazor (SAN) was one of the founding fathers of legal aid for the poor in the country in 1961.
Born in 1930 in Obosi, Anambra State to Eugene Keazor and grandson of Igwe Israel Eloebo Iweka, King of Obosi and the first Igbo Engineer, Ikeazor attended University of London.
However, the Nigeria Legal Aid Association was formed in 1974, which led to the crusade for legal aid provision.
In 1976, the then head of state, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, promulgated the Legal Aid Decree No. 56 of 1976 on Nov. 10, which formally introduced the legal aid scheme into Nigerian law. (NAN)
NEO/HA
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Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu