Lagos State Government has vowed that the culprits whose negligence caused the tragic tanker explosion on Otedola Bridge inward Ojodu Berger along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which claimed lives and property will not go unpunished.

Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem, who said this while addressing journalists on the activities of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration in the justice sector in the last four years, said the culprits would be charged to court as soon as the police concluded ongoing investigation.

Kazeem, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said contrary to insinuation in some quarters, the matter had not been swept under the carpet, and that government would ensure the affected culprits were brought to book.

He said government initially had challenges identifying the suspects, adding that they would be prosecuted once the police finished their investigation.

According to him, “One of the challenges then was how to identify the perpetrators of that crime. We had said the driver and the owner needed to be identified and there were all kind of theories out there whether the driver had died in the fire but as we understand, the police traced the owners to Kano and the whole idea was that at the end of the day, they should complete their investigation and get us the file here in the Ministry because we are not empowered to investigate.

“That process is not conclusive yet and until we get the file, we cannot proceed with prosecution as we all know but these disasters are things we take seriously and I want to assure Lagosians that the Otedola disaster will not be swept under the carpet. Once we get the facts properly of an investigation, we will commend the process of prosecuting the suspects in that matter.”

Speaking on other matters, the Commissioner said talks were still ongoing with the Federal Government to relocate Ikoyi Prison from its present location being at the heart of the city, expressing optimism that the deliberations would be fruitful and beneficial to all parties.

While reeling out some of the achievements of the Ambode administration in the justice sector, Kazeem recalled how a synergy was formed with the state judiciary towards expansion of Mobile Court, saying through the development, government was able to reduce street trading, traffic congestion and unethical/anti-social conducts on the roads, as well as environmental nuisance, thereby improving the socio-economic well-being of residents.

He said as part of measures to create awareness of laws that were passed in the state, a web portal was created where all laws and regulations of Lagos State are available online.

“The dedicated web portal – http:laws,lagosstate.gov.ng is regularly updated with all new laws and regulations, and has since the launch recorded an average of 100,000 user hits every month and over 10,000 downloads of the laws of the state,” Kazeem said.

In bringing into effect major policy thrusts of the State Government to the people, the Commissioner said a total of 14 Bills were passed into law, while 12 are currently undergoing drafting process

“Working towards building a ‘citizen-centric’ criminal justice system for the purpose of ensuring efficient and effective justice delivery, we published and distributed the sentencing guidelines to ensure uniformity of punishments imposed on convicts by all the judges and magistrates handling criminal cases in the state,” he said.

On measures taken to tackle the menace of land grabbing which at a point was almost completely stifling commercial activities in the state, the Commissioner said a Special Taskforce was created, saying it was gratifying to report that the Taskforce has continued to receive petitions, while several criminal prosecution cases against suspected land grabbers are currently ongoing in different courts.

On the world class Forensic Centre, the Commissioner said: “The DNA FORENSIC CENTRE is another landmark achievement of this administration that is worthy of being mentioned. The Center which was set up on the 3rd of May 2017 is of world class standard and the first by any Government in Nigeria. Our ultimate aim for setting up the Centre was to create an enabling environment for proper investigation, prosecution of crimes, adjudication and the administration of Justice in the State.”

Also, he said in order to create a viable system for monitoring the prosecution of sexual offences, a special Sexual Offences and Child Justice Unit was created to ensure timely prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence cases at the newly designated Sexual Offences Court, while new Court Buildings in Badagry – Olusola Thomas Combined Court Complex and Sikiru Adagun Combined Court Complex in Ajegunle were commissioned in 2017, as well as a couple of new magistrate Courts for environmental, Road – traffic and allied offences in Oshodi to support the Mobile Courts Units, thereby ensuring effective and quick dispensation of justice in the metropolis

Besides, Kazeem said an online platform for the Lagos Public Interest Law Partnership (LPILP) was equally created to give room for accessibility, a move he said had facilitated easy access to justice by firming out Pro Bono matters to private chambers and Legal Practitioners, who take up civil/criminal suits on behalf of the state government for public good free of charge.

He added that a Rapid Tax Prosecution Unit was also set up, while in a bit to enhance due diligence in property transactions in the State, the E-Real Estate Litigation Database was launched to provide ease of access to information to anyone who wants to deal in a property with information primarily on whether the property is subject of litigation.

“Since its launch on 30 January 2018, the portal has recorded over 1,000,000 hits and over 10,000 “unique” or consistent users from Nigeria, United States, United Kingdom, South Africa and others,” he said.

On efforts to tackle prison congestion, the Commissioner said: “We introduced Plea Bargain Protocol which has reduced the time spent on criminal cases towards achieving Prison and Court decongestion. We launched the Plea Bargain Protocol in 2017 with a view to drive quick and effective resolution of criminal cases and in turn decongest the prisons and Court dockets.

“As part of efforts to overcome Prison congestion and ensuring accelerated hearing for minor offences, we facilitated collaboration between the Ministry of Justice and Prison Fellowship to explore the adoption of restorative justice measures as part of sentencing options for designated relevant offences. The initiative, which is expected to eliminate the excessive use of prison sentences for minor offences, is to embark on a pilot scheme to assess the feasibility of Restorative Justice Options rather than imprisonment,” he said, just as he revealed that over 8,000 people have been captured through the Lagos Criminal Information System also called Criminal Case Tracking System which was initiated in 2018.