‘Everyone deserves a second chance and access to justice’

The Nigerian legal system appears overwhelmed by the influx of cases flooding the nation’s courts needing urgent attention and this has greatly affected the dispensation of justice, resulting in several thousands of inmates flooding the limited prisons. Nelson Olanipekun of the Gavel is on a mission to help some of these inmates get justice and be acquitted. In this interview with MABEL DIMMA, he shares the vision of the Gavel, and its achievements in its one year of existence. Excerpt:

What is the Gavel all about?

Gavel is a civic tech organisation that increases the pace of justice delivery through tech by tracking court cases, providing access to justice and reducing the opacity in the justice sector. We have four major tech tools and products: Justice Clock, Timeline of cases, info graphics and digitized cause list

Justice Clock is a tool we use to track time spent on court cases, while with timeline of cases, we inform the public as to major milestones on the cases we are tracking.

The digitisation of cause list is to provide a fore knowledge as regards cases that are to be tried in court each week; this encourages preparation and synergy among stakeholders for effective dispensation of justice and with info-graphics we create advocacy and sensitisation on issues around the criminal justice system.

What are the aims and beliefs of Gavel?

We believe that if we track time, we can accelerate justice, and that if we link the poor of the poorest with probono lawyers, we can give access to justice.

We also believe that if we make public the activities of court by digitising cause lists, we can create open and transparent justice using technology. So from the cumulus clouds of the Plateau, to the state of Rivers in South-South, to the plains in the North-West and the creative people of South-East; we will be disrupting the justice sector for better.

Why was the Gavel founded?

Gavel was born out of an incubation programme of Civic Hive; the incubation and media arm of BudgIT; so we enjoy remarkable support from them.

What need was it created to meet?

It is said that justice delayed is justice denied. The justice sector is faced with many challenges ranging from systemic and human inefficiencies and this is causing a slow justice delivery system. The bulk of this inefficiency is not from the judiciary like most people think, however, 49percent of delay in justice delivery arises from other government actors while 16percent is from the judiciary according to a research conducted by the Justice for All programme of the British Council.

The consequential effect of this delay is prison congestion and unimaginable numbers of awaiting trial inmates. According to a data by Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, 72percent of inmates in Nigeria prisons are awaiting trial. Now the practice is that whenever a person is arrested the police take such a person to the Magistrate Court to be arraigned, however, the magistrate Court has limited jurisdiction. Most serious offences cannot be tried in Magistrate Court, so when such people are brought to the Magistrate Court, the Magistrate checks whether he has jurisdiction, if he does not, he issues a remand order to put the person behind the bars in prison.

Those people sometimes stay as long as 7 years without being charged by the prosecuting bodies to the appropriate court, oftentimes the High Court, hence the increasing number of persons on pre-trial detention.

In less than one year of operation, what has the Gavel been able to achieve?

Gavel has been in the fore front of advocating for the implementation of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act/Law since it has been founded. To achieve this objective, the organisation filed a class action suit for over 538 awaiting trial persons against the relevant prosecuting agencies in Oyo State. This class of people should ordinarily wait not more than 28 days before they are charged to Court but some are spending over 7 years.

The civic tech organisation through its tech tool, also digitise cause lists in over 30 courts across Nigeria to reduce the opacity in the justice sector, improve synergy among stakeholders in the justice sector and also measure the speed at which criminal trials are being dispensed with.

We are also tracking over 13 corruption cases. We have released close to 10 inmates from prison and we are still providing free legal representation for over 20 inmates.

How do you get clients and how do they locate you?

As a civic tech organisation, we are contacted via our tech platforms, gavel.ng and social media platforms. Also, we get referrals from prison or court.

What is the level of awareness in respect to Gavel’s activities?

As a start-up, we keep increasing our visibility through our activities and info-graphics. However, I am amazed at the level of acceptability and visibility we enjoy and we keep working on making the start-up more visible

Could you please, share your experience with the justice system since you started?

The justice system is notoriously slow. As regards officials, sometimes you meet good officials while at times you meet unmotivated, inefficient and corrupt officials.

Who are your main clients?

Poorest of the poor who cannot afford access to justice, while others are the stakeholders in the justice sector such as lawyers, prosecutors, police, prisons etc.

What challenges have you faced so far?

The challenges are multifaceted. Working closely with court officials could be a daunting task and our courts are not properly funded. In perfecting a court bail, you need to provide everything; starting from transporting the Prosecutor/Registrar to verify the addresses of the sureties, to providing funds to the officer of the court who will serve the release warrant on the prison facility. You provide all these resources.

More so, the issue of fund is a major concern. We will love to impact lot of lives but without funds we are handicapped. Being a start up with few hands and resources, the work could be stressful but the soothing balm is the joy you get when you reunite an underage inmate with his parent or a son with the mother that has lost all hope.

Everyone deserves a second chance and access to justice. Also, in the area of cause list digitalisation, Court officials can be very frustrating especially when you are time bound.

In summary, dealing with public servants involved in the dispensation of justice, traveling for cases, getting good hands to manage your tech platforms and funding are the most challenging issues

Are the activities of the Gavel nationwide or limited to Lagos?

Gavel is presently being incubated in Lagos by Civic Hive; the incubation and media arm of BudgIT Nigeria. For now, our activities cut across South West and Abuja mainly, but we have plans to expand soon.

What is Gavel’s focus for 2018?

Our major focus includes the tracking of more corruption-related cases and advocate for faster disposition of the cases, increase our access to justice programme, push for more implementation of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act/Law, and digitise more cause lists across Nigeria. Gavel has been working with volunteers. We have Ajibade Oluwafemi; a lawyer and Enitan Familuyi; they have been big contributors to Gavel’s success story.

Tell us about yourself

I am Nelson J. Olanipekun, the founder and Project Lead of Gavel. I am a lawyer, tech enthusiast, and an open justice advocate. I graduated from Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti in 2013 where I bagged LL.B (Hons) in Law, after that, I proceeded to Nigerian Law School.

While in Law School, I created an online platform that helps legal practitioners, law students and legal minds interact with the view to create synergy and bridge the gap that comes with jurisdictional issues. I also taught interested students how to use some tech tools that would be beneficial to their legal practice in law school. I was called to the Nigeria Bar in 2014.

In 2016, I took a Master Degree course in forensic science and took great interest in cyber/digital forensics; the field in which I wrote my thesis. I love strategic thinking, movies and video games. I am a Christian and I believe in contributing my little quota to better the world.