Lagos Chief Judge Harps On Justice For All

The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, has restated  the commitment of the Lagos State judiciary towards proper delivery of justice to all.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ summit on the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2012 and The Family Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2012, as part of activities marking the commencent of the new legal year,  Justice Phillips, who explained that the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2012  rules is yet to become operational, said a lot still needs to be done in terms of infrastructure and personnel improvement.

According to the CJ, “I want to use this opportunity to call on all lawyers in the state to acquaint themselves with the new rules.

“We will restore the confidence of Lagosians in the Nigerian legal system.”

In his remarks, Attorney General of Lagos State and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Ade Ipaye, commended the CJ for ensuring that prisons in the state were decongested when on Tuesday she ordered the release of 233 prison inmates from the Kirikiri Maximum and Medium Security Prisons.

According to Ipaye, “a man must be presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent record.

“The practice of putting people in detention while we look for evidence is barbaric and wicked.

“Investigation is a very serious matter, and so it must be properly done before anybody is accused of any form of offence.

“We would be punishing a detainee and his family, when he is detained without carrying out proper investigation on what he is being accused of.”

The Commissioner commended the Lagos Judiciary for ensuring appropriate dispensation of justice in the state through the new laws, adding that, “the Lagos judiciary has lived up to expectation and it will continue to improve in the future.

Earlier in his address, a member of the High Court Civil Procedure Rules Review Committee 2012, Justice Habeeb Abiru, promised that as judges in the state, “It is our resolve that justice dispensation is improved upon.

“The amendment of the rules will continue as the judiciary in Lagos goes on.

“One major innovation of the new rules is the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

“Under the new rules, once a matter is deemed fit for ADR, it is compulsory and no longer optional that the matter be resolved by ADR.”