LAGOS HANDLED ABOUT 8,000 CASES FREE OF CHARGE IN YEAR 2013 The Lagos State Ministry of Justice has handled about 8,000 different court cases between January and December 2013 at zero cost to the defendants. Mr. Ade Ipaye, the State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, who disclosed this at the Monthly Press Briefing of his Ministry, said that the Office of the Public Defender (OPD) handled about 7,186 court cases while the Directorate for Citizens Rights also handled over 674 human rights cases on behalf of many Lagosians. He added that, in the same period, the Office of the Public Defender treated 3, 141 petitions in respect of various matters and was able to recover (N51, 266, 946.56k) Fifty One Million, Two Hundred and Sixty-Six Thousand, Nine Hundred and Forty Six Naira, Fifty Six Kobo only on behalf of the defendants. The Commissioner also revealed that the total value of settlement of debt related matters achieved by the Citizens Mediation Centre had increased during the period under review with the recovered amount totaling Four Hundred and Five Million, One Hundred and Seventy-Five Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty-One Naira only (N405, 175, 921) which was collected by the Centre on behalf of parties involved in disputes. Speaking on prison decongestion in the State, Ipaye noted that between January 2013 and December 2013, a total of 2,324 offenders were sentenced to various terms of community service with the primary aim of decongesting the prisons as well as avoiding the consequential disruption in their economic, social and family lives. While urging Lagosians to obey all laws and regulations promulgated in the State and not to take the law into their hands, he advised them to always take advantage of the free services provided by the State through his Ministry to settle their grievances. The Attorney-General emphasized that, “as the lawyer to the good people of Lagos and legal adviser to the government, we shall continue to ensure that every citizen of the State has access to justice”, adding that “we shall sustain our working partnership with stakeholders in the justice sector to ensure that our State remains a haven of safety and security for every resident”.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 16:49:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015