Lawyers in Nigeria have called on authorities at federal and state levels to decriminalise Petty Offences in the country.
This demand becomes neccessary against the backdrop of increasing cases of negative human rights abuses on petty offences in Nigeria.
Lawyers Alert, with the support of the Open Society of West Africa OSIWA (now Open Society Foundation), facilitated a meeting of Lawyers who converged in Abuja to deliberate on the negative impact of petty offences and efforts towards decriminalisation of Petty offences in FCT, Benue, Bauchi and Kano.
Petty offences as minor offences that may include loitering, begging, being a vagrant, failing to pay a debt, being an idle or disorderly person, hawking and vending, being a common nuisance, being a rogue and vagabond, disobedience to parents, urinating in public, hawking and vending washing clothes in public.
The President of Lawyers Alert, Barrister Rommy Mom maintained that decriminalising petty offences would lead to more equitable and positive social and economic outcomes for all members of society.
The participants at the meeting said petty offences in most cases are victimless offences that do not require any form of incarceration or custodial sentencing”
Lawyers Alert, in its works to decriminalise petty offences, has been providing awareness and sensitisation on what petty crimes are, and the need to decriminalise them.
Lawyers Alert and its partners in states are also offering free legal assistance and representation to petty offenders. Lawyers Alert is currently working with its partners in Bauchi, and Benue states on passage of bills in the State House of Assembly to decriminalise some petty offences in the states.
Recently in Kano, Lawyers Alert, through its partner Mrs Oluwakemi Nurudeen Shehu, paid an advocacy visit to the Hisbah Board in Kano to advocate for the decriminalisation of petty offences in the state.
Noting that the current system of punishing petty offences leads to the criminalisation of poverty and human rights violations associated with petty offences, which needs to be addressed in the state.
Noting the negative impact and human rights abuses associated with petty offences in Nigeria, the lawyers in attendance at that meeting undertook to continue advancing efforts to decriminalise petty offences and agreed to continue providing legal services to petty offenders and institute Strategic Impact Litigations.
Recall that The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, on 4 December 2020, delivered a historic Advisory Opinion against vagrancy laws (laws which criminalise the status of individuals as being poor, homeless etc., as opposed to specific wrongful acts) and resultantly decriminalised these offences.
Armed with this advisory opinion, Lawyers Alert have been engaging with Magistrates towards decriminalising petty offences through the courts and some Lower Court Judges are now opting for non-custodial and community services punishment for petty offences cases they adjudicate upon.
