From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse
The CLEEN Foundation with support from Norwegian Embassy has inaugurated State Level Working Group on Administration of Criminal Justice Law in Jigawa State.
In a statement on behalf of the CLEEN Foundation’s Board, management and staff, the acting Executive Director Mr Peter Madouma, welcomed all the participants to three days training and workshop on Capacity Building and Formal Establishment of State ACJL Working Group in Jigawa State.
“It is important to state that this action is part of the activities under CLEEN Foundtion Project we titled: Strengthening Right-Based Approach to ACJA Frameworks and Advancing Women, Peace, and Security in Nigeria and funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs represented by the Norwegian Embassy here in Nigeria.
“We like to thank His Excellency Ambassador Svein Baera and his team at the Norwegian Embassy for the confidence reposed on CLEEN Foundation in bringing about this partnership on strengthening the Administration of Criminal Justice system in Nigeria and Jigawa state in particular”, he said.
According to him, on the Tuesday 26th August 2025 the project launch took place in Abuja and state level implementation in twelve states of Enugu, Jigawa, Lagos, Ekiti, Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Jigawa, Adamawa, Cross-River and Akwa Ibom) is currently ongoing.
Mr Madouma added that, CLEEN Foundation and her funding partner the Norwegian embassy, recognize the need for effective implementation of the ACJL in Jigawa state and that this requires skilled, well-coordinated, and data-driven monitoring across policing, prosecution, custodial, and judicial sectors as well as the need for the establishment of a functional monitoring body.
“It is with this in place that the key objectives of the ACJL, such as reducing pre-trial detention, ensuring timely trials, protecting human rights, etc can be achieved. This 3-day engagement will bring about the establishment of an ACJL State Level Working Group that will advocate and support the State in the establishment of an Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC) and contribute to effective and sustainable implementation of ACJA/ACJL in Jigawa State”.
The acting executive director said the workshop focused on Equiping stakeholders with skills and tools for a more effective advocacy and supporting the monitoring of ACJL implementation in the state, Strengthening inter-agency collaboration among policing, prosecutorial, custodial, judicial institutions, and building relationship with relevant CSOs.
Other objectives of the workshop includes development and adoption of a Terms of Reference (ToR) and operational guidelines for Jigawa State ACJL State level Working Group (ASLWG), and Reviewing and adoption of State level Action Plan (SLAP)5. Formal inauguration of the ACJL State Level Working Group (ASLWG) CLEEN is confident that working with all the ACJL stakeholders present at this meeting the gains of ACJL in Jigawa state will be further enhanced and strengthened.
“For us at CLEEN Foundation, it has been a journey of twenty-seven (27) years working to promote public safety, security, and social justice in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large through research, legislative advocacy, demonstration programmes and publications in partnership with government, civil society and the private sector while maintaining our values of professionalism, integrity, respect for human rights and innovation”, he said.
The participants of the workshop includes representative from Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Nigeria Correctional Services (NCoS), Nigeria Police Force(NPF) Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Human Rights, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Department of Public Prosecution (DPP), Media among many other relevant Stakeholders.
