Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of Oyo State, Barrister Abiodun Aikomo, said on Friday, July 4, that the administration of Governor ‘Seyi Makinde has performed excellently in the area of observing the rule of law, strengthening the Ministry to ensure justice delivery and putting in place institutions that will sustain the state.
Aikomo stated this at the Omituntun 2.0 Inter-Ministerial Briefing held at the Governor’s Office Briefing Room, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, noting that the governor not only encouraged the rule of law, but also strengthened the Ministry of Justice and its multiple departments tasked with addressing different areas of the law.
The areas include civil litigation, mediation, administrative general and public trustee, legal drafting and parliamentary counselling, public prosecutions, agreements and gender-based violence, among others.
The Commissioner maintained that as part of the government’s effort to strengthen justice delivery, the government approved the appointment of 40 state counsels, with 30 of them already appointed, while the government is working on recruiting the remaining 10 so that the Ministry of Justice could meet up with the demands and the responsibilities of the office.
He pointed out how the Ministry crafted many Executive Bills, which had been passed into Law by the House of Assembly, and how it also crafted Executive Orders, which had made major impact on the state, including the Executive Order 001 of 2024, on the safe handling and storage of harmful substances and the Executive Order on the Security and Protection of Mining Communities, among others.
Explaining his reason for rating the administration high in the observance of the rule of law, Aikomo noted that Governor Makinde’s manifesto for the second term of office contained a section of the rule of law and that he has achieved everything he promised and demonstrated fidelity to the social contract he had with the people of the state while campaigning for his first and second terms of office.
The Attorney-General noted that apart from strengthening the Justice Ministry, which according to him, does intangible works, but is at the core of the existence of the society, the governor delivered on his promise to establish critical institutions that would ensure the state thrives into the future, including the Oyo State Mobilisation Agency for Socio-economic Development (OYMASED), the Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority and the Oyo State Anti-Corruption Agency (OYACA).
He said: “What we do in the Ministry of Justice is basically intangible, but it is at the core of the existence of the society. There cannot be a society without law, and law is actually the secret that binds societies together.
“So, law is the heart of government business and government responsibilities. The government itself is a creation of the law, so we are in the middle of everything that is done by the government to ensure that the law is followed strictly.
“There is no Ministry, Agency, or Department of the Oyo State government that does not have one thing or the other to do with the Ministry of Justice. So, I say that as a foundational principle; that we are at the core of government, because the government operates with law or under the rule of law. We ensure that whatever the government is doing is done in accordance with due process and with the law.
“So, in this regard, we have different departments in the ministry through which we carry out this responsibility. All these departments work every day. We receive mail from everywhere in Oyo State.
“From across the 33 local government areas, about 10 million people, from Ibadan to Kishi to Igbo Ora to Igbeti, we receive court papers almost everyday in matters involving people.
“When they consider that it is desirable to join the Oyo State Government as a party, they join us, and we have to defend all those suits. So, our lawyers are in court in Igbo Ora, in Kishi, in Shaki every day from Ibadan. We do this and we have results. I have the data here, the number of cases that we have done, the number of cases that are ongoing. As you can imagine, our ongoing cases are in thousands.”
Aikomo added that Governor Makinde has maintained an excellent credential in observing the rule of law and delivering on his promise to the people in that regard, saying: “The Section Six of the Oyo State Roadmap for Sustainable Development; 2023 to 2027 is dedicated to the rule of law. And, all that the governor promised in that document has been carried out as of today.
“The governor said we are going to set up an agency to mobilise and educate the people on their responsibilities with respect to the law. Consequently, OYMASED was created to educate the people of Oyo State on what they should know.
“You know, it shows good thinking on the part of the government of Oyo State. The law is binding on everybody, whether you are illiterate or educated, and ignorance of the law is not an excuse. So, it then became a foundational principle of law that for law to be the law, it must have what is called inner morality. The lawmaker should let the people know. And that is what OYMASED is doing.
“The governor also promised that we are not going to allow our laws to just be there. Whether a law is important or relevant or not, they can push it and succeed with pushing it at the National Assembly. So, we have so many laws. But laws do not have automaticity. Laws do not self-implement. Laws are just written in black and white. They are dead without somebody activating them.
“So, the governor put machinery in motion to set up the Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority. The Authority is doing what it should do. Everything that the government has been doing has been in strict adherence to the rule of law.”
The Commissioner for Justice attended the briefing alongside the Permanent Secretary/Solicitor-General of Oyo State, Mrs Are Oluwabunmi, the Director, Public Prosecution, Mr Abiola Najeem and other Directors from the Ministry.
