By Folasade Akpan
Brig.-Gen. Muhammad Fadah, the Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has commended the Corps Legal Aid Scheme (CLAS) for its remarkable impact in reforming Nigeria’s justice system.
He gave the commendation on Tuesday in Abuja, while delivering an address at the opening of the 2022 Legal Officers’ Capacity Enhancement Training.
The theme of the training is “The Role of Legal Officers in Delivering Quality Legal Service in Nigeria’’
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Fadah, who was represented by the Director, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Mrs Christy Uba, said that CLAS had made remarkable impact in complementing government’s efforts in justice delivery.
“CLAS has also achieved a lot by enlightening the general public on legal matters, provision of legal services for indigent persons, decongestion of correctional centres by securing the release of inmates who are incapable of paying fines.’’
He also commended all legal officers of the scheme for the contributory roles they played in the achievement of successes recorded so far and urged them to keep up the good work to enable further successes.
Fadah said that as part of the scheme’s strategic measures to enhance its operations for optimal performance, management recently approved the conversion of some staff to the Legal Officers Cadre.
According to him, this will further strengthen the scheme’s legal unit.
The Director, Legal Services, Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, said that the training was in line with the Council of Legal Education Policy on continuing legal education trainings and re-training of legal officers.
This, he said, would enhance their competence and capacity building on legal service delivery.
President of the Court of Appeal Hon. Justice Monica Donghan-Mensem, while highlighting the roles of legal officers in an organisation, said that they were to provide legal advice, represent the organisation in court cases where sued and identify and mitigate risk to its barest minimum.
Represented by the Head of Training, Mrs Josephine Ekperobe, she said that as legal officers, they are expected to be able to nip in the bud issues that were likely to result in litigation.
“Also, you are expected to identify likely problematic areas and suggest alternative course of action and mitigate risk as much as possible for your establishment.’’ (NAN)
