Lagos State Government has disclosed that its ministries, agencies and parastatals have a total of 1,197 cases in court, saying the state Ministry of justice was currently handling the cases for the government.
The government also said it is currently prosecuting 950 criminal cases in different courts across the state and Nigeria.
The disclosure was made on Wednesday, by the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, during a Ministerial Press Conference held at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre in Alausa, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
Ipaye said the cases having to do with the MDAs were being handled by the Directorate of Civil Litigation of the Ministry of Justice.
“Directorate of Civil Litigation is responsible for instituting and defending civil actions involving the State Government, its ministries, departments and agencies”, Ipaye explained.
“The directorate is currently handling 1,197 in various courts from Magistrate Court through the High Courts, Appellate Court and the Supreme Court.
“Out of this number, 256 are new cases. In the period under review, judgments were delivered in 40 of the matters being handled by the Directorate and 14 matters were struck out for various reasons.
“The judgments included the decision of the Census Tribunal which returned favourable judgments in respect of 13 out of 14 Local Governments which figures were challenged; as well as the Supreme Court decision on control of tourism and hotel regulation.”
Ipaye further revealed that between April 2013 and March 2014, a total of 2,595 offenders in the state were sentenced to different terms of community service across the 12 Magisterial Districts of Lagos State.
He said many of the offenders are between the ages of 20 and 40, and are mostly males adding that the state has succeeded in lowering the prison population without compromising the criminal justice administration system.
Ipaye revealed that the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP), set up as part of government’s reform of the criminal justice system, has 708 cases courts.
He said the figure includes the 42 and four cases currently being prosecuted at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court respectively.
Stressing that the introduction of the DPP has eased and hastened criminal prosecutions, he added that in addition, the are prosecuting 242 cases at the Magistrate Courts. All together, the DPP is engaged in the prosecution of 950 criminal cases.
“In the past one year, judgments were delivered in 76 cases in various matters the Ministry was prosecuting both at the High Court and the Court of Appeal.”
Speaking further, the commissioner said in the last one year, the police sent 1,440 investigation files to the DPP’s office for legal advice, and that the DPP has already completed work on 1,369.
“We want to assure the good people of Lagos that our Directorate of Public Prosecutions is committed to ensuring that all offenders are brought to book, thereby discouraging impunity in our society”, Ipaye stated.
“The Directorate is also committed to speedy trials, especially so that suspects are not detained too long, awaiting trial.”
