Justice Ministry To Train IPOs, LASTMA Officials

The Lagos State Ministry Of Justice says it will soon commence training for Investigating Police Officers (IPOs), Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) officials, Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs) and officials of other government parastatals of on how to handle investigation and disciplinary matters.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Mr. Pedro Lawal (SAN) gave this hint yesterday at a one-day workshop tagged: “ Attaining Excellent Disciplinary Standard And Avoiding Government Liability In Employer-Employee Dispute” organised by the justice department for top staff in the Ministry of Establishment, Civil Service Commission and the Directorate of Finance.

Decrying the liability incurred by the state government following numerous cases filed by workers whose appointments were wrongly terminated by committees that did not follow proper disciplinary procedures, Mr Pedro Lawal said the training has become necessary to avoid such litigations.

Pedro noted that the Lagos State Government had over the years incurred unnecessary liabilities due to cases that would have been decided by the law courts in favour of the state, if the disciplinary officers had followed due process in their action.

“ There are series of cases against the government over the issue. Some of these cases would have gone to court if the concerned agencies had followed due process and responded to request of queries through the Ministry of Justice,” he said.

Speaking on how to handle the matter, Mr. Pedro further said: “ Definitely this training is going to involve the IPOs, LASTMA, VIOs and officials in other government parastatals. We are taking it bit by bit. Police officers will be invited here to be retrained on how to investigate and what to look for in an investigation involving such crime as murder. The training will also be carried out for all agencies of the Lagos state government on how to handle disciplinary matters.”

Mr. Pedro added that the training will be an ongoing process as way of ensuring efficiency and compliance with disciplinary procedure among public servants in the state.

—Henry Ojelu & Tosin Areo