A CAMPAIGNING Glasgow lawyer has passed the first hurdle in setting up a new legal service in Africa based on a successful model from Govan.

A CAMPAIGNING Glasgow lawyer has passed the first hurdle in setting up a new legal service in Africa based on a successful model from Govan.

Mike Dailly, principal solicitor with the Govan Law Centre, returned today from a 10-day trip to rural areas of Cameroon.

And he said the government of the African state is backing an attempt to give free legal help to its poorest people.

Mr Dailly said: "The problem is not that they don't have good law. They have a lot of good laws but they are not practised across the country."

His trip was sponsored by Glasgow University's international aid agency, the Active Learning Centre. It was through this group Mr Dailly met Laura Naddin Ngwa, when she spent time studying in Glasgow some years ago.

Mrs Ngwa, now a commissioner with Cameroon's National Commission For Human Rights And Freedoms, showed him the area around the north west city of Bamenda.

Mr Dailly saw the problems faced by people in the countryside, where cons and corruption are often a way of life.

He was shown files on cases of horrific child abuse, often involving the murder of children, used to bind poorly educated local people to cultish secret societies.

He said: "There are societies that tell people if they join they will enjoy success. They will tell them they have to pay to join and to mutilate or kill a child, which enhances the whole occult nature of the society.

"But it's just a way to get money out of the people who join."

After winning verbal support from local ministers, Mr Dailly is working to raise funds for a law centre in Bamenda, to be built and run by local human rights workers.

He said: "It will offer people access to lawyers they could not otherwise afford and educate them about their rights to make sure they are less vulnerable to exploitation."