Ekiti State Office of the Public Defender has restated its commitment to defending the rights of citizens, especially the indigent, as cases of marital crisis and land dispute has become the commonest societal evils affecting the peace and stability of the state.
This was made known by the Executive Secretary of the agency, Barrister Bolanle Wale-Awe, while addressing newsmen on the achievements of the human rights’ body in the last one year.
Wale-Awe disclosed that the Office was established to give free legal services, advice and mediation in marital, land and other human angle cases for justice and peaceful resolution, noting that over 50 marriage-related crises and a large number of land dispute issues were handled in 2019 alone.
According to her, “The commonest of all the issues we are handling here are cases of marital challenges and land disputes.
“In many of those cases we handled, we normally conduct DNA tests and found out that most men are in the habit of denying the pregnancy they were responsible for. Some men were also fond of abandoning the upkeep of their children among other nefarious acts.
“Another issue is this high tendencies of some people to fight over lands or owners of lands trying to sell a plot to two or three persons. All these are creating instability and heating up the society.
“We are dealing with over 20 variant of issues to bring justice to the people and to decongest our courts because many of the cases that will take four years in courts can be handled and settled here in a day.”
On the challenges faced by the agency, the Executive Secretary called for more funding to improve the database and digital storage system as cases increase daily.
“This office ought to have an ICT to process our data and make it functional in the discharge of our duties. We have about nine lawyers here offering legal services among other staff, but this place is not conducive enough for them to perform.
“It will also help the society if the government can relocate this office to a more conspicuous location where people can locate us easily. With this, we will have the opportunity of solving many societal problems and relieve our courts of congestion for speedy delivery of Justice,” she said.
Wale-Awe therefore called on religious leaders, town heads and all stakeholders to assist the agency in curbing the menace of societal ills such as domestic violence and sexual assaults in order to protect all and sundry.
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