Ogun State House of Assembly’s Committee on Justice, Ethics and Public Petition, has charged the Ministry of Justice to efficiently tackle the menace of land grabbers in the state.
The committee also charged the ministry to effectively implement the state’s anti-Land-grabbing law to reduce incessant killings and invasion of lands by land grabbers.
Mr Solomon Osho, the committee’s chairman, gave the charges on Tuesday in Abeokuta when the Ogun Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade, who paid him an official visit.
Speaking against the backdrop of on-going budget performance assessment for the first quarter of 2022, Osho decried the slow pace of prosecution of land grabbers.
He explained that there was the need to ensure strict enforcement of the anti-Land-grabbing law to stop the upsurge in land grabbing cases in the state.
He also challenged the ministry on the need to find a workable means of decongesting prisons across the state.
Responding, Ogungbade assured the lawmakers of proper enforcement of all legislations in the state.
He stated that there was also the need to further sensitise members of the public on the need to report land-related disputes to law enforcement agencies for prosecution.
Ogungbade noted that the recent release of more than 100 inmates from custody was facilitated by the Office of Public Defender, either through bail or striking out of cases in which trials could neither begin nor proceed.
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The attorney-general noted also that more than 90 rights and criminal cases like rape, theft and armed robbery were recently disposed of in various courts in the state.
Ogungbade added that the Office of the Public Defender assisted about 200 suspects to secure police bail in the first quarter of the year. (NAN)