Non-governmental organisation, Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), has provided legal support for more than 250 petty offenders who were apprehended in four states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Abia, Enugu, Kano and Lagos, as well as the FCT , constitute the pilot states in which PRAWA is implementing its Decriminalising of Petty Offences Project which it started in February 2019.

The Executive Director, PRAWA, Dr Uju Agomoh, said in a statement she issued on Wednesday in Abuja that the project had yielded positive fruits in the four pilot states and the FCT.

She, however, noted that the NGO started providing support for petty offenders in June 2019.

“The first thing we did in February 2019 was to have a baseline research on petty offences in all the states before the actual implementation of other activities.

“This helped to provide legal and other support services to over 250 arrested petty offenders and their releases were facilitated.

“The advocacy component of our project has led to reduction in the rate of arrest and especially detention of petty offenders,“ she said in the statement.

She said that the Abuja Environmental Protection Board had reduced the amount of fine slammed on petty offenders and also the rate at which offenders were being sent to custodial facilities.

“Our campaign for vulnerable petty offenders during the COVID-19 lockdown was helpful in the diversion of violators of the COVID-19 regulations to non-custodial alternatives in terms of sanctions,“ she said in the statement.

Agomoh noted that Nigeria was one of the countries that still retained some aspects of colonial laws that criminalised poverty in their law books.

She said that these laws were targeted at the uneducated and disadvantaged poor people such as hawkers, street beggars and sex workers,  among others.

“Our organisation keyed into the decriminalisation of petty offences campaign in line with the guiding principles initiated by the African Commission with the support of Open Society Initiative of West Africa (OSIWA).

“The project used the medium of research, advocacy, education, litigation, media campaign and provision of legal and other support services.

“This was used to address the issue of disproportionate impact of the enforcement of petty offences laws on the poor, disadvantaged and marginalised sections of the society,” she said. (NAN)