By Our Reporter
In its bid to promote quick access to justice among Nigerians through the instrumentality of Artificial Intelligence, AI technology, a non-governmental organisation known as ‘Citizens’ Gavel‘, has pioneered the legal innovation in the country.
The event which came under the theme: ‘AI for justice: Highlighting the innovative use of AI in the legal sector and its potential to revolutionise access to justice,’ took place in Lagos State.
Speaking at the occasion, the body’s Operations, Mr. Oluwafemi Ajibade, a Lagos-based lawyer informed that the legal AI was introduced to aid the most vulnerable and downtrodden have access to justice.
Ajibade stated that the developed AI, named ‘PODUS,’ is trained to point litigants in that direction.
He State further that the AI priorities include cases of emergency, police misconduct, including extortion, brutality, fundamental rights violations, illegal arrest among other vices.
He allayed the fear associated with the deployment of Artificial Intelligence, assuring of the fact that it would serve to complement the legal profession and not take away jobs from lawyers as speculated.
Ajibade said that, “Every professional atmosphere in Nigeria is being shut down by technology. For example, we don’t have enough lawyers, and we don’t have enough doctors to cater to everybody. For legal problems, the AI tool we are deploying is to help lawyers reduce their workload.
“I want them to see it from the perspective that it helps reduce the workload. It helps to tailor their work to that very professional aspect that they have always rendered by taking away the need for maybe all this legal advice and small issues that might occur that someone can maybe fix on their own or something like that. He argued that, using the AI tool does not replace the need for a legal practitioner, “who can help with documentation and represent a person in court,” he asked.
He said that the AI tool is recommended for everybody as developers have documented and trained the AI with all the laws that govern the country so that it will help people in the remotest part of the country. On how many country can be resolved using the AIcouNigeri
been resolved using the AI platform, he said using PODUS AI, which is a new functionality they have just introduced to their platform, they have been able to receive over 2,000 cases from members of the public and resolve more than 60 per cent of these cases.
Also speaking at the event, the tech lead at Citizens Gavel, Oluwadamilare Ayankoya, said the PODUS AI platform was very much accessible, as they were intentional about accessibility, so they decided to go with WhatsApp.He said, “Because we have billions of users via WhatsApp, and we know Nigerians and most people are glued to their WhatsApp, we made it accessible via WhatsApp.“It is, of course, accessible in other platforms, like using websites, the internet, as I said earlier, pushing out mobile apps to also help with the adoption, and it’s for free, you don’t have to pay for using the tool.”
Earlier in his open remarks, the team lead of Citizens Gavel, Mr Nelson Olanipekun, said, “The AI for Justice represents a noteworthy advancement in our mission to empower Nigerians in confidently navigating the legal landscape and accessing legal resources through AI technology.“
“We firmly believe in PODUS AI’s potential to enhance legal processes, making them more efficient. People are now empowered to write well-crafted petitions or letters to file complaints against injustices leveraging various complaints centres of government such as Human Rights Commission, Ombudsman, FCCPC, States’ Mediation Centres.”
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