By Tayo Joseph Lagos Nigeria
The Lagos State Government on Monday 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.
Speaking while receiving report of a 10-Man Committee set up to review communiqué issued at the end of the summit, the State’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem assured Lagosians that they would soon feel the positive impact of the policy implementation of the State Government on justice administration.
He 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 two-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, 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 is 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 Busola Okunuga of the State Judiciary; Kehinde Taiwo, Rotimi Seriki, Gbenga Olatunji, Supo Olayibi, Yomi Okunu, Dotun Ibiyomi, Joyce Oluwa and CSP Effiong Asuquo.
