•1,805 offenders sentenced in six months

BY MONSURU OLOWOOPEJO

In addressing prison congestion, Lagos state government says its judicial system has sentenced  789 offenders to various terms of community service across the 12 magisterial districts of the state, in the last 100 days.

It will be recalled that 1,015 offenders were handed such sentence in the previous 100 days that marked  the present administration’s 2,500 days in office.
This was contained in the document obtained by Vanguard at the event marking the 2, 600 days in office of Governor Babatunde Fashola, last Friday.

According to the document; “789 offenders were sentenced to various terms of community service between the period of March and May 2014.”
With this, 1, 805 offenders have been sentenced to different terms of community service in the last six months.
The state government explained that this was part of its effort to decongest prisons in the state.

The state government added that the state community service policy is a non-custodial punishment enshrined in the state’s criminal law, adding that it was one of its strategies to ensure speedy dispensation of justice.
The government opined that through the community service, which requires offenders to do some community work, it has succeeded in de-congesting the prison system without compromising justice administration.

Also, to aid de-congestion of prisons, the state government facilitated the “completion of work on 120 police investigation files in the last 100 days through the legal advisory unit in the state Directorate of Public Prosecution, DPP.

“And it assisted aggrieved residents of Lagos to recover the sum of N269, 324, 253 million through payment of debt and compensations.

“Assisted residents of Lagos to recover the sum of N258, 833, 619, N4, 885, 308 and N5, 605, 336 through the Citizen Mediation Centre, CMC, Office of the Public Defender and Directorate of Citizens Rights respectively as debt settlement and compensations for clients in various matters.

“In addition, the government free legal service through the Citizen Mediation Centre, CMC which resolve a total of 5,098 cases for Lagosians. The Office of the Public Defender also handled 1,722 cases, while the Directorate of Citizens Rights treated 1,828 human right cases free,” the state government said.