Attorney General Of Osun Advocates For Prompt Dispensation Of Justice

Laws are made for man and in a bid to ensure a safe and sane society; justice system at every level of governance plays a very pivot role. In Nigeria in general alongside its states, successive governments have made valiant efforts in ensuring that the system works as it should. The results envisaged are that justice is no longer delayed, the independence of the judiciary is assured and the prisons system works as it should. In this interview with BAYO AKINLADE, of Thenigerialawyer, Osun State Attorney General and Commissioner for justice, Barr, Dr. Ajibola Bashiru x-rayed Nigeria’s justice system while weighing the pros and cons. He also threw more light on the issue of prisons’ congestion and the various efforts of the Osun state government towards decongesting the prisons. As a PHD holder, a lecturer and a lawyer with expertise in election petition matters what is your plan for criminal justice sector reform and the Judiciary in Osun State? We have already begun work on the laws of Osun State which was last reviewed in 2002. We have commissioned consultants and recently 44 new laws have been passed while about 20 are pending. Part of the pending laws is the Administration of Criminal Justice Law. Making law is always an ongoing process, what we are currently focusing on is developing capacity within the Judiciary for the speedier dispensation of Justice. We have to realise that the Police and the Nigerian Prison service play a vital role in this regard and unfortunately we have no real say or authority over those institutions but we are trying our best to work with them to ensure that we decongest our prisons and prosecute the right people. The Chief Judge of Osun State is currently reviewing the Civil Procedure Rules which will further ensure that there is quick dispensation of Justice is both civil and Criminal matters Osun State now has a mediation centre as well as an office of the public defender. The Mediation Center has helped in reducing the amount of cases pending before the regular courts. This is a service that the government has provided at no cost to its people. Since 2012 over 250 cases have been resolved while another 120 are still ongoing. What are your views on the issue of financial autonomy for the Judiciary? There are serious infrastructural challenges that the Judiciary face but we must look at it from the point of view that even though we have three arms of government, they are not totally independent of each other and they are there to complement each other. The Executive cannot give the Chief Judge allocation to build courts, it is the job of the executive to EXECUTE projects, so to give the Judiciary all it needs to build its infrastructures etc is not the way it works. This is not to say that the Judiciary should not be well funded, on the contrary, the Judiciary should be well catered for as it will encourage more local and foreign investments and that is why we are working hard to ensure that the judiciary is restructured. Osun State has come under criticism for not paying its civil servants, what is your opinion on this? It is my sincerely belief that this is a fallout of the declining economy, the fall in the price of crude oil and our inability to diversify our economy. We simply have too many bureaucracies, 38 states sharing meagre national resources. We have no viable industries or production capacity. Nigeria needs to radically restructure at the regional level otherwise we will continue to regress. We understand the problem we are having in paying our civil servants and we have called all the stakeholders together in a transparent manner. Each month we show them what we receive from the Federal government and from our IGR. Armed with this information, the leaders of the various unions have agreed on a new salary scale that is reasonable and reflects the current economic situation in the Country. There are rumors that the Badoo is planning to carry on its activities in Osun State having been driven out of Lagos There is no place for the Badoo cult in Osun State. We have state of the art security surveillance both air and land so there is no place they can hide. We have also not spared any cost in ensuring that the Police is well equipped and encouraged. On our part, our expert team of lawyers in the ministry of Justice conduct their case in a timely and effective fashion to ensure that the criminals are brought to book. What are your views on the Fulani herdsmen problem and the grazing bill currently at the National Assembly? The issue of grazing is cultural. In Osun State we have invested heavily in setting up a cow fatting facility to maximize on the production of milk and cow flesh which is the real value in the feeding of these cows in the first place. We don’t want animals running around, that is not the way to go about it. We need to resolve this issue from a socio-economic point of view but if the National Assembly continues along this path we will have to test the constitutionality of the bill at the Supreme Court if the bill passes into law.]]>