Headfort Foundation, a NGO that provides legal support for indigents and wrongly incarcerated inmates, has sensitized children on their fundamental human rights.
Sensitizing children at the special correctional center for boys in Sabo Yaba, Lagos, the Headfort Foundation team also shared the ‘My Rights, My Freedom’ handbook which simplifies chapter four of the Nigerian constitution for easy understanding.
Speaking with newsmen, the Communications Director, Itunuoluwa Awolu said the sensitization is important for the children in other to decongest Correctional facilities across the country, noting that if Children are aware of their fundamental rights as citizens of the country, a better society is achievable and there will be not much need for congestion in the correctional facilities.
Awolu said the sensitisation workshop was part of the foundation’s “My Rights, My Freedom Project” through which the organization has simplified Chapter four of the 1999 Constitution into easy-to-read English and to three major local languages.
She said that it was important for the inmates to understand and know the limits of their rights to be able to fit properly into society.
In her statement “as part of our #myrightmyfreedom project, which is mainly an opportunity for people at all levels to understand their Fundamental Human rights, at Headfort foundation, we are to give free access to justice to vulnerable people in society, especially people children on the street and correctional facilities. Both the ones with long-standing trials and the ones their case is currently in court”.
She also disclosed that the foundation would provide necessary legal support for the children as their lawyers have begun preliminary investigations into their cases.
HF had conducted similar sensitization to special correctional facilities in Oregun and Surulere, Lagos.
The Executive Director of Headfort, Barr. Oluyemi Orija noted that the organization is organizing the sensitization for inmates with the aim of reintegrating them meaningfully into the society and sensitizing them about their rights.
Orija said “instead of just representing and taking them out of prison with ignorance in them, it is also essential for us to educate them on their fundamental human right, this, in turn, will help them to prevent crime”.