Director-general of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof Aliyu Jauro, has described the dearth of environmental lawyers as a major setback in the war against environmental crimes in the country.
The DG spoke when he received members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Gwagwalada branch, who paid him on a courtesy visit at the headquarters of the agency in Abuja.
He said, “Lack of knowledge in the area of environmental law is a serious challenge. Many lawyers are not abreast with issues pertaining to the environment despite the fact that we have a lot of legislative framework on environmental issues.
“We had in the past organised appreciation workshops for Judges and other judicial officers as part of advocacy on environmental law enforcement.”
In a statement made available to our correspondent, Aliyu told the lawyers that the agency had so far developed 35 regulations cutting across different sectors in both the green and brown environment, adding that the regulations were already being implemented to promote environmental governance and sustainability.
He, therefore, implored them to “Use public interest litigation to develop, enrich and promote our jurisprudence as far as environmental law is concerned.”
The NBA chairman, Gwagwalada branch, Emmanuel Ogunjide, who led the lawyers said they were at the headquarters of NESREA to seek collaboration on capacity building in the area of environmental law.
“We want your experience and wealth of knowledge to rub off on us”, he added.
Emmanuel praised the DG and his team for the numerous achievements recorded by the agency.
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