…Rolls Out Helplines for Access to Justice and Judicial Support
By Sebastine Ebhuomhan
Governor Monday Okpebholo has not violated any law that relates to the administration, structure, finance and composition of the local government area councils in Edo State, enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other laws.
Edo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Right Honourable Samson Raphael Osagie (PhD.), emphasised in response to an Edo State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) faction’s call on the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to withhold federation allocations to Edo State councils and initiate contempt proceeding against its chief law officer.
Speaking exclusively, Mr. Osagie disclosed that the Edo State government under the leadership of Senator Okpebholo is rather committed to strengthening justice administration by ensuring the Ministry of Justice serves not only as the government’s prosecutorial agency but as an institution facilitating Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to protect the less privileged for a peaceful co-existence and social harmony through access to justice.
Two agencies the state government has established since 2018 to accelerate justice are: the Citizens’ Mediation Centre (CMC), offering free mediation services to indigent and vulnerable citizens, and the Citizens’ Rights Department (CMD), enforcing citizens’ rights against breaches.
“How can the public access the services of these agencies? They are open to all Edo citizens, especially those who cannot afford legal representation. The agencies are located at the Ministry of Justice. Citizens’ Mediation Centre and Citizens’ Rights Department have played indispensable roles in promoting peace, justice and social harmony in Edo State. Of course, security is a key component of the administration of Governor Monday Okpebholo. This is why these new departments are playing key roles to ensure that issues that would otherwise escalate are settled amicably without recourse to unnecessary tangos and, of course, sometimes, litigations.
“These departments have been made to be statutory agencies under the Ministry of Justice. It is hoped that in no distant time, the agencies will be formally inaugurated to have in law statutory cloak to perform their mandates. A law has been passed to ensure that these agencies stand on their own; because they become one in order to achieve their mandates,” Osagie explained.
According to Dr. Osagie, a total of 634 civil disputes have been resolved successfully by the two agencies since inception. The disputes are as diverse as inheritance, matrimony, employment, accommodation, domestic violence, gender oppression, rights violation, and inter-communal violence with the advantages of saving time, reducing costs and preventing backlogs usually associated with litigation.
The CRD operates two specialized units: the General Complaint Unit and the Correctional Centre Legal Services. The latter has accounted for 290 inmates’ freedom from overstay in correctional services through prolonged trials, delayed trials and wrongful prosecutions.
Osagie disclosed his Ministry’s plans to extend the agencies’ operations from Benin, the capital city (in Edo South District) to Ubiaja (Edo Central District) and Auchi (Edo North District) in order to accelerate justice. He provided two helplines. They are: 08074388080 and 07087058094. He urged citizens to access the telephone lines for judicial support.
On the call by the acting Chairman of Edo PDP, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, to the FG to withhold statutory allocations of Edo local government councils owing to alleged violation in Edo State House of Assembly’s suspension of the state’s elected council chairmen and vice chairmen for corruption, Osagie said, “The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) made a very unusual and uninformed call on the Federal Government to stop allocations to local government councils in Edo State. I think it is important we address Edo people on the illegality and ignorance about that call.
“First, let me start on the point that the issue of allocations to various tiers of governments in Nigeria, the federal, the states, and the local governments are matters of the Constitution. Section 162 of the Constitution makes it clear that monies standing to the credit of each tier of government, in this case, the local government councils in Nigeria, shall be directly credited to their accounts. It was this provision that the Supreme Court gave verve when it decided that local government councils should enjoy some measure of autonomy.
“In this case, this call is uninformed. It is an illegal one in the sense that by Section 7 of the Constitution itself, it talks about the democratically elected local governments as being guaranteed by the Constitution. For that purpose, a law by the House of Assembly of every state shall make provision for the administration, structure, finance, and composition of the local government councils.
“In Edo State while it is correct that the chairmen and vice chairmen have been undergoing some inquisition arising from complains of sleaze and corruption at the various councils’ levels, reports have been submitted, which are quite damning on the administration of funds by the local government councils until the House of Assembly competently exercised their powers to suspend the chief executives as at 16th of December, 2024.
“Now the position of the law with respect to Edo local government councils is that the democratically elected members and functionaries of the local government councils in Edo State are still in place. The disciplinary action taken against the chairmen, which puts them under inquisition notwithstanding, you still have under the 192 wards of the state today, elected counsellors, from which the leaders of the various legislative councils have now become the heads of the local government administration.
“In other words, the PDP is over-stretching the verdict of the Supreme Court to the extent that the local government councils are synonymous with only chairmen and vice chairmen. And that is not the interpretation of that judgment neither is that the interpretation of any law or the Constitution for that matter.
“The question to be asked is: in Edo State, do we have a democratically elected local government system in place? The answer is: yes. It is yes because those that were elected are the ones running the council. These are people who are also candidates of the People’s Democratic Party. So, one wonders why the PDP is calling for a stoppage of allocations to councils that its members are running. It is ironic.
“Speaking from a very purely legal perspective, the challenges besetting the councils that have affected the council chairmen and vice chairmen notwithstanding, Edo State councils are still being run by democratically elected people until the court says otherwise. That is in recognition of the fact that the governor is conscious of the rule of law to the extent that there shall be no caretaker committees or transition committees or councils run by unelected persons.
“So, the governor understands that clearly. He has violated no law with respect to democratically elected structure in the local governments. And the inquisition about those who have been suspended are ongoing,” Osagie concluded in response to the baseless allegation from the factional party leadership ex-governor Godwin Obaseki installed in his twilight.
Mr. Sebastine EBHUOMHAN is an award-winning journalist and media consultant from Edo State. He can be reached on: usie007@yahoo.com and 08037204620.
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