Oyo State government has perfected plans to post lawyers from the State Ministry of Justice to the Oyo State Police Command to afford the police timely legal advice and ensure speedy judicial process.
This was made known on Monday, when the State Police Commissioner, Mrs Ngozi Onadeko paid a courtesy visit to Oyo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof Oyelowo Oyewo (SAN) at the Board room of the Ministry.
The Attorney General in his opening remark welcomed the Commissioner of Police, said outside the herdsmen and related issues, Oyo State was relatively a peaceful State compared to some other States in the country and highlighted some of the areas that the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde has introduced reforms in the judicial sector.
Oyewo said among the areas of judicial reforms were the investigation and prosecution of crimes, which he said have some noticeable gaps as a result of the processes and procedures used or the personnel that are being used in the process who have no proper judicial background to deliver.
He explained that some proposals would be made available to the police hierarchy in the State from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to deal with the shortcomings, while a department would be created to bridge the gap between the police and the office of the DPP, while some legal officers would be stationed at the State Police Command to effect smooth judicial system among the police, the State prosecutors and the correctional authority.
“Some lawyers will be stationed in the State police command which will help in giving legal advice as well as legal intervention when necessary and also fast forward some of the delays they are having in some cases, this process will make the judicial process smooth and fast, for the benefit of the offender, the prosecutor, the police and the correctional institution,” he said.
The commissioner of Justice also talked about the unjust treatment of offenders and said a committee has been set up, which is made up of the judiciary, the police and the correctional unit of the Ministry, that will put an end to unjust detention which has been creating problems for the the correctional service, the police and the Ministry, adding that the system in the offing would make Oyo State score another first in the area of justice delivery.
On the security architecture of the State, Prof. Oyelowo stated that the State’s Security Agency, also known as Amotekun is the key aspect of the complimentary input introduced by the present administration to combat insecurity in Oyo State, lamenting the fact that the police have not participated in the training of the officers of Amotekun for effective rural policing.
He said police is an institution with a long history of policing with well-trained personnel to pass on skills in policing to the Amotekun corps and urged for collaboration between Amotekun and the Police to make the State’s security architecture more effective.
In her response, the Commissioner of Police, Mrs Ngozi Onadeko said the visit was to seek for the cooperation and synergy of Oyo State Ministry of Justice and the Police Command to carry out their duties effectively and to instill speedy administration of Justice in the State.
She said the police force is the chief internal security operator in Oyo State and are ready to work with everybody including the Amotekun and Vigilante to achieve the same goal of making Oyo State Safe.
Ngozi explained that the three groups should know individual boundary and jurisdiction which required cooperation for success and that rivalry between the police and Amotekun was unhealthy and would not augur well for everyone.
“There is no issue between Amotekun and Police, Amotekun is helping the police to discharge its duties, rivalry between Amotekun and the Police is unhealthy, but I want to advise the Amotekun corps to hand over suspects to appropriate quarter which is the police, we also urge the people of Oyo State to live together in peace and love irrespective of where they come from,” she solicited.