LASG restates commitment to justice sector reform

LAGOS State government has pledged to fully implement recommendations made at the recently held summit on administration of justice with the view to enhancing justice delivery in the state.

The State’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Adeniji Kazeem, gave the assurance on Monday while receiving report of a 10-Man Committee set up to review communiqué issued at the end of the summit.

He said with the implementation of the report, Lagosians would soon feel the positive impact of the policy implementation of the state government on justice administration.

Kazeem said the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was determined to implement reforms that would guarantee effectiveness, efficiency and transparency in justice administration in the state.

The 2-day summit was organised by the State’s Ministry of Justice in January 2017 to deliberate on how to improve justice delivery in the state.

“I am so happy to receive the report within the stipulated time of three weeks. The governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, is operating so fast as if he is running out of time to implement his good policies.

“We are at the implementation stage now having submitted your report, and I believe the governor will not hesitate to see the implementation of the recommendations as fast as possible,” Kazeem said.

He also promised to extend the policies recommended to the Federal Government through the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the National Judicial Commission (NJC) for input and successful implementation.

He thanked the entire committee members for the job, while urging them to expect more tasks ahead in an effort to improve the state of the justice delivery system.

In his response, Chairman of the Review Committee, Mr Fola Arthur-Worrey, said it was time for drastic steps to be taken to lift the judiciary out of the woods.

Arthur-Worrey, who was a former Solicitor General of the state, said there was need for a lot to be done in order to improve on the administrative mechanism of the state judiciary to safe guard the system as well as reform the systemic failure.

He said though any reform process was gradual in nature, but government must be firm enough to implement the recommendations and get the system running efficiently.

“Reforming any system is an engineering process. If you don’t disrupt, you don’t reform. The judiciary is not efficient enough in mechanism, and we are not talking of the individual judges, but the entire system. So, the government must implement the recommendations fast to make the system work,” he said.

Other members of the committee included Mrs Busola Okunuga of the State Judiciary; Mrs Kehinde Taiwo, Mr Rotimi Seriki, Mr Gbenga Olatunji, Mr Supo Olayibi, Mr Yomi Okunu, Dotun Ibiyomi, Mrs Joyce Oluwa and CSP Effiong Asuquo.