The efforts of the justice sector institutions in Nigeria to enhance attendance of witnesses to courts and revive the moribund laws relating to witness support and protection has received a boast with the training of state actors in criminal justice delivery in Enugu State on Witness Counseling and Tracking. This initiative is being powered by PRAWA with the support of Justice for All Programme of DFID under the ‘Speeding-Up Criminal Justice System in Enugu State Project’

PRAWA recently successfully concluded a two-day training workshop for 54 Officers of Nigerian Police Force NPF Enugu State Command on the Witness Counseling and Tracking Form. The workshop took place at the Superior Officers’ Conference Room of the Command

The witness counseling and tracking training involved the systemic follow-up of recommended steps on a working document tagged: “WITNESS TRACKING FORM”. This form include such information as: Name of Accused Person(s), Police station, Division, Charge or Offence, IPO’s name and phone number, Name of Witness, Type of witness, Sex, Age, Email, Phone number of witness, Occupation, Current Address, Permanent Home Address, Next Contact person’s telephone number and other information.

The training and sensitization workshop was designed to be training of trainer’s workshop in its outlook. The 54 Officers were mainly Investigating Police Officers IPOs who benefitted from the first phase of the training and sensitization are supposed to step down the skill on other officers and men of the Force.

The participated Officers expressed their happiness with the initiative, even though they said the New Witness Tracking Form captured some of the information in the witnesses’ statements and even suggested some additions to the form to accommodate other information needed in the IPOs Case files.

One of the issues that came up during the workshop regarding the tracking of witnesses is the fact that over time, some witnesses do not wish to be contacted directly for certain obvious reasons bordering on their security and convenience , except via the complainant. As concerned this issue, the following suggestions were made:

• That the public needs to be sensitized on what to do as a witness who is threatened via radio jingles and posters pasted in public places.
• That the public sensitization should also include encouraging informants to give information to the police and telling them that they will not be mentioned or invited to give evidence.
• That a box be included in the form, asking if the witness wishes to be contacted via the complainant or not.

It will be recalled that during the PRAWA/J4A hosted Consultative Forum on Enhancing Witness Attendance to Courts held earlier in Enugu, that it was recommended the that States in Nigeria be made to make and implement their own witness protection laws so that they can flexibly apply them independently, adding that witness education is very key to the future success. The forum also revealed that witnesses not attending courts is a very strong reason for delays in delivery of criminal justice and that ignorance of court procedures, lack of witness and victim support services, intimidation of witnesses, stigmatization of special case witnesses and victims are some of the challenges facing witness attendance to courts. The forum noted that some of the gaps are found in the inadequacy of funds provided by criminal code for witness welfare and protection and inability of witnesses to know what to expect when they attend courts.

The PRAWA recent training workshops on Witness Counseling and Tracking for Judicially, Police, Prisons and Ministry of Justice workers is a positive move towards addressing some of the issues raised at the Consultative forum.