The President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Mr. Solomon Adodo has honored a lawyer Mr. President Aigbokhan with a public interest award for excellence in service as a lawyer.
The recipient Mr. Aigbokhan Esq had been a student’s union leader in his u university days, and has in the past held offices in the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). Currently, he is the Co-Chair on Access to information of Edo State Open Government Partnership (OGP), Member, African Network of Constitutional Lawyers (ANCL), Consultant, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria, Member of Freedom of Information Network (Global) and Freedom of Information Coalition, Nigeria.
Some reasons and acts carried out by Aigbokhan Esq which inspired the NYCN to honor him with award include thus:
1. He had expanded the scope of citizens’ access to public institutions and public participation in governance, and led a team of lawyers that enrolled inmates into voting class in Nigeria. Seehttps://guardian.ng/news/appeal-court-affirms-pisoners-right-to-vote/http://lawpavilionpersonal.com/ipad/books/46104.pdf.
2. Aigbokhan Esq was the first lawyer to apply the Freedom of Information Act of 2011 in court. See https://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/05/court-orders-edo-hivaids-control-agency-declare-financial-statements/
3. In 2019, he sued Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission (EDSOPADEC) to disclose details of the contract of construction of police stations. See https://thenewspad.com/2019/02/22/court-dashes-csos-hopes-to-access-edsogpadec-budget/.
4. Also, he sued Edo State House of Assembly over what he tagged the failure to disclose Committees report on the work plan of the House and its quarterly supervisory report on World Bank loan to Edo State Government. This was in 2014.
5. He sued Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) on the expenditure of the Commission between the year 2012-2014. This case took right to information from a statutory right to a fundamental right and made right to information a self-standing human right in Nigeria. See http://www.freedominfo.org/wp-content/uploads/NDDC-JUDGMENT0001.pdf. Also represented Registered Trustee of Unemployed Youths of Nigeria in a case against the Code of Conduct Bureau over public access to assets declaration by public officers. See https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/unemployed-youths-initiative-v-code-conduct-bureau/. This effort, led to his invitation by the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) to participate in the 64th Session of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right holding in Cairo, Egypt.
6. Furthermore, he has defended death sentence of two family member who were charged with murder and conspiracy. The Court of Appeal of Nigeria reversed the death sentence and enlisted the accused awaiting trial. See https://www.sunnewsonline.com/appeal-court-orders-re-trial-of-siblings-23-years-after-they-were-convicted-for-murder/ The case law report is here http://lawpavilionpersonal.com/ipad/books/46140.pdf