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The Lagos State Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund have called for the protection of children’s rights at different correctional facilities in Lagos.
They made this call yesterday during the Official Launch & Presentation of The Report on the Study of the Training and Treatment of Children in the Lagos State Approved Children’s Institutions.
The report, presented by the Founder and Executive Director, Voice of The Child Law Centre, Prof. Iyabode Ogunniran, centred on the need for positive growth and societal integration of children at various correctional centres in Lagos.
Viavonu Folorunsho, who represented the state Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mobolaji Ogunlende, said the the ministry was working to ensure proper upbringing and protection of the rights of children.
Folorunsho said, “Some of these findings (in the report) are not strange to the ministry because we also have a research and development unit. Last Thursday, the director of social welfare in a meeting formed a committee to look at different categories of children that have been brought together in our facilities.
“We are also passionate about addressing the issues (of child rights). Despite our challenges, we have recorded so many success stories. Some children are (now) in federal universities on scholarships. We have those who have graduated even with first class, and some of them are now in the Lagos State civil service.”
The representative of UNICEF Child Protection Unit, Dennis Onoise, said the discussion was something the organisation was really interested in, including having plans to support the correctional facilities that harbour children.
He said, “For those of us in child protection, (we believe) that the issue of children is not something that everybody understands, particularly when you talk about training. She has presented in such a way that anybody who knows where some of these children are growing and the kind of challenges these children face will understand that special attention must have been given to the work presented, particularly when you’re looking at children in correctional centres.
“Some of these children are sent to prisons or detained in police stations when the law actually says they cannot be there. You’re talking about children who may have just stolen N100 or N200 to buy bread because they are hungry and then somebody takes them to court and they are sentenced.”
Also speaking, the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, Dr Babajide Martins, said, “We need to separate children who are in conflict with the law from children who are to be protected because of their vulnerability.
He suggested having platforms where children could be tried virtually and not necessarily in the physical courtroom.
