A private legal practitioner, Anim Nyarko has entreated the general public to have confidence in public sector agencies to redress their grievances when their rights are abused in the course of seeking justice.
He said there have been an improvement in the services of such institutions as Ghana’s justice delivery system makes great strides with the introduction of the Case Tracking System (CTS).
Mr. Nyarko was speaking on Asempa FM’s political talk show, ‘Ekosiisen’ as part of series of education on the CTS under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Justice Sector Support Activity (JSSA).
Mr. Nyarko said the CTS has helped remove major bottlenecks that hindered smooth justice delivery.
He said it has also kept Justice Sector Institutions (JSIs) on their toes to deliver their mandates.
He said members of the public who have experienced any form of abuse should not be deterred from reporting their complaints to institutions meant to take actions for remedy.
“People did not have confidence in the Police Intelligence and Professional Standard Bureau (PIPS) of the Ghana Police Service but the narrative has changed. One can also petition the Inspector General of Police if the person does not have confidence in PIPS. Other institutions such as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) can also deal with matters of abuses,” he stated.
“These days you do not hear about missing dockets compared to the past. The Case Tracking System has cleansed the system of such issues since the implementation of the JSSA. I, therefore, want to urge the public to be confident in the system,” he added.
Touching on arrests and bail from police custody, Mr. Nyarko encouraged the public to demand arrest warrants before succumbing to arrests. He also reiterated that bail is free.
USAID Justice Sector Support Activity
The USAID Justice Sector Support Activity (JSSA) aims at increasing citizen knowledge and access to Justice Sector services, strengthening advocacy interventions for accountability of key Justice Sector Institutions to improve justice delivery, and increasing citizens’ oversight and monitoring of criminal cases to enhance justice delivery.
