The Yobe Government has adopted the Child’s Rights Act and is awaiting assent by Gov. Mai Mala-Buni.
The Commissioner for Justice, Mr Saleh Samanja, disclosed this during a ministerial briefing to mark Gov. Mala-Buni’s two years in office.
Samanja said that with this, Yobe has joined some states that have passed such Law into force.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act in 2003 to domesticate the international Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The act covers every aspect of the lives of children and adolescents.
”It should be noted that one of the greatest achievements of this administration is coming into force of Administration of criminal justice Law in Yobe.
”By this Yobe has joined comity of states that have passed such law into force. The advantage of having such laws is that cases are now being disposed off in good time.
”It also helps to decongest our prisons as criminal cases are now being disposed off within reasonable time
”We have also discovered that lately we have witnessed an upsurge in rape and other Gender-based offences.
”Towards this we produced a standard operating procedure for the prosecution of rape and other gender-based offences.
”This standard operating procedure has greatly helped in investigation and prosecuting such rape cases,” he said.
The commissioner also said that the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP) has been passed into law and now awaiting assent of Gov. Mala-Buni.
The commissioner said that two Executive orders were signed by Gov. Mala-Buni.
These, he said, are the Introduction of Yobe geographic information system and the reintroduction of Jangali or Livestock Tax.
”Already a committee has been put in place to work out the modalities of collection of such taxes it will also help to monitor the movement of cattle rearers and register them in the state for close monitoring” he said.
Samanja also said that the state government also established a new directorate to deal with Citizens Rights and alternative dispute resolution
He said that 67 complaints were received in 2020 to 2021.
The directorate, he said, disposed of 54 cases while 13 complaints are pending
The justice ministry, he said, also drafted and vetted 258 contracts of the state from 2020 to 2021.
Samanja said the ministry also recorded 176 criminal cases, adding that 119 of the cases were disposed off, while 57 are pending.
”These in a nutshell are the modest achievements recorded during the period under review,” he said.(NAN)