The administration of governor Babatunde Fashola has awarded contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of courts in the state, at a cost of N4 billion.
This involves the construction and rehabilitation of 12 courts in the state, while N2.8 billion has been paid as mobilization fees to the contractors, which include Moremo Group, Cubic Homes, Barrows Construction Limited, Numbers Limited, Equity Foundation, Messrs Moreno Plc, Ershaw Nigeria Limited, Integrated Project and Messrs Sageto Limited. The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Olasupo Shasore (SAN), disclosed this, this morning, at a news conference, adding that while some of the projects were at advanced stages of completion, some have already been completed while others are just starting.
Shasore also disclosed that in the last one year, 1,072 criminal prosecutions were instituted involving 3,836 defendants, out of which 1,831 were convicted. “These cases involving law and order offences ranging from violations of road traffic laws, environmental sanitation offences laws and street trading were prosecuted at the special offences courts by state counsel from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions,” he stated. He further disclosed that 250 cases were pending in various courts within and outside the state while 50 new cases were instituted against the state government.
The commissioner said in the last one year, the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) secured 255 case files from the Nigeria Police and issued 149 legal advice, adding that 65 cases were not recommended for prosecution. “Thirty fresh cases were instituted at the High Court while 11 cases were prosecuted at the Magistrate’s Courts, while the DPP has 29 appeals pending at the Court of Appeal. “The DPP participated in 115 applications for bail and the enforcement of fundamental human rights, out of which 19 applications were struck out,” he said.
The Attorney-General also disclosed that the Directorate of Commercial Law (DCL), in his ministry, generated N160.4 million for the state government from payment of agreement fees by contractors. The DCL also generated N2.2 million from transaction arising from the operations of limited partnerships. It is expected that revenue from the registry located in the DCL will increase significantly because of the volume of transactions that will be generated by the registration of limited liability partnerships following the amendment of the partnership law of Lagos state to provide for the registration of limited liability partnerships,” he added. Shasore said the Citizens Mediation Centre (CMC) received 8,673 cases in the last one year and resolved 3,618 cases, adding that 335 cases were not concluded.
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