Nasarawa moves to check indiscriminate detention of minors with harden criminals
By Umar Muhammed, Lafia
The Nasarawa state Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Barrister Labaran Magaji, says plans are underway to establish a prosecution team that are going to look into critical complex cases, ranging from indiscriminate and unlawful detention of minors alongside harden criminals across various correctional centers in the state.
The Commissioner of Justice made the statement in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital.
Speaking on the recent action taken by a group of retirees under the aegis of Patriotic Local Government Pensioners Union Nasarawa State who had approached the Industrial Court Makurdi in Benue seeking enforcement of a creditor’s judgment case for the payment of their retirement benefits which led to the state government account being garnished, he reiterated his commitment to explore other alternatives means of settling dispute among the state and the citizenry.
His words, “I understand that there has been a lingering litigations on civil matters but ordinarily ought to have been dealt with on a round table. I think under my watch, we shall explore other
alternatives means of settling dispute between the state government and the Local Government Pensioners Union Nasarawa State who had approached the Industrial Court Makurdi in Benue state.”
It would be recalled that Justice Isaac Essien had ruled that the three commercial banks who were joined in the suit did not prove to the court why the garnishee order should not be enforced hence they were ordered to pay into the bank account of counsel to the retirees over one billion naira belonging to Nasarawa State Government for
disbursement to the pensioners.
According to him, “This will no doubt go a long way in reducing the rate of embarrassment faced by government because there cannot be any form of embarrassment faced by government than an individual winning case against the government. We shall together review all those things and see how best we can come up with the solutions to it.
He added that Governor Sule’s policy direction with respect to compliance to the rule of law is going to be given a top most priority, ensuring that hence forth there is going to be synergy with all the MDA’s in the state and all the other organs of government to seeing that all the enabling laws are properly enforced and duly adhered to.
On the issue of corruption which he said has eaten deep into the fabric of the state government and hindered the progress and development of the state, he promised to set up a team of prosecution to fight against corruption in the state, saying this would go a long
way in helping the ministry of justice to restore its lost glory and status and revealed that the ministry would also carry out advocacy visits to sanitize all the MDA’s in state on the danger of corruption.
“Fighting corruption in the state is lined with governor Abdullahi Sule policy administration and is one of the bold governors to initiate the physical responsibility bill which was signed into law and this was one law that most governors will not want to pass into
law without the fear of the implication and moving forward I am assuring you that the fight against corruption is going to complement the state government efforts in fight the menace of corruption to a barest minimum,” he added.
While appreciating the state governor for finding him worthy of the appointment to be the chief law officer of a state he thanked the permanent secretary of the ministry, solicitor general Isaac Edoh and
other staff of the ministry for their warm reception the accorded to him in organizing the handing over ceremony and promised that welfare of staff is going to be top of his agenda.
