Citizens’ Advisory Bureau to be set up
The Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Legal Aid Board yesterday told Journalists at a press conference at Guma Building at Lamina Sankoh Street in Freetown that they will be working with the Freetown City Council to set up the Citizens’ Advisory Bureau in forty nine Wards in the Western Area.
Mrs. Claire Carton-Hanciles further stated that her institution and the Freetown City Council will embark on legal education as they have noticed that public order offences and civil rules and regulations are being violated blatantly hence the need to undertake the education on civil responsibilities in order for communities to start addressing their own problems.
Mrs. Claire Carlton-Hanciles further explained that the Bureau will consist of volunteers in every community and has the major aim to foster peace in the communities, settle family disputes, and enhance good behaviour in the communities in order to redeem the ancient practices where neighbors watched over each other’s children, settled extended family fights and lived as one large family.
She noted that the formal training of Paralegals will be conducted for Ward Committee members who will be looking into the community issues.
She stressed that the Bureau will consist of men and women of high integrity and of upright standing who will tell people the truth to their faces.
She also explained that together with the Freetown City Council they will formulate the criteria for the eligibility of those who will serve on the committees.
In his statement, the Mayor of the Freetown Municipality, His Lordship Bankole Gibson congratulated the Legal Aid Board for their achievements, noting that the need to combat lawlessness cannot be over-emphasized.
He advised the Board to use the whole of 2016 on legal education while pointing that Sierra Leoneans are not stupid but very stubborn.
He explained that the Citizens’ Advisory Bureau will neither be partisan and nor too different from the Ward Committees, as he called on Sierra Leoneans to take ownership of the Bureau.
He observed that Sierra Leone as a nation needs no more new laws but practices and relate these laws into the daily lives of people to prevent too much Police interventions.
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