The Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), has said plea bargain will serve as a tool for decongesting correctional facilities and aiding speedy dispensation of justice in the state.
Onigbanjo, according to a statement on Sunday, said this during a stakeholders’ meeting to promote plea bargain and the District Prosecutors Scheme in Lagos.
The meeting was organised by the Ministry of Justice through the Directorate of Public Prosecutions as an opportunity to create more awareness on the state’s justice system.
Onigbanjo said, “The plea bargain has served as an important tool to keep the wheel of justice moving in a timely and cost-effective manner as it has helped decongest the extremely congested correctional facilities in the state as available data reveals that the facilities exceed their capacity by 100 per cent with inmates awaiting trial at 85 per cent.
“To demonstrate our commitment towards the exercise, we took plea bargain a step further about four months ago, when I led a team of lawyers to the Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Facility for a plea bargain sensitisation exercise where more than 15 plea bargain agreements were executed onsite and sanctioned immediately by the judges through virtual hearing.”
The Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Ms Titilayo Shitta-bey, said the government had done a lot to improve the state’s justice system.