Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Adeniji Kazeem, has said that the state is negotiating with the Federal Government to relocate the Ikoyi Prison.
Kazeem said Governor Akinwunmi Ambode initiated the plan to move the prison from Ikoyi, to a more spacious location in a less heavily-built-up part of the state, possibly Epe.
Kazeem, who is the Esquire Magazine Attorney-General of the Year, spoke to law editors and reporters at Alausa.
He disclosed that if the Federal Government cooperates, the state would construct a new Ikoyi Prison, which would be a world-class correctional facility with adequate provision for hygiene, accommodation, feeding and other needs.
Kazeem said: “We are very passionate about prison reform. Unfortunately, issues of prisons are on the exclusive legislative list. They are things not within our control but we can’t look away, that is the reality.
“The police is not under our control but we have made major interventions in that area because it affects us, and I can tell you for free that almost all the security services that operate here, including the prisons, have received one intervention or the other from the Lagos State Government.
“There is an ongoing matter with Ikoyi Prison. Discussions have been ongoing with the Federal Government to relocate the prison to possibly Epe or some other location and free up that space.
“The whole idea is that that prison is decongested and is right in the middle of the city. Now what we are going to agree with the Federal Government, (includes to) get the designs and build a world-class prison facility.
“In America they call them correctional facility, because you’re supposed to correct the behaviour of people that go in there so that they can come out and become better people in the society. So, that’s one of the things we have to do.
“His Excellency, Governor Akinwunmi has said that he will intervene, even though it is a federal problem, so to speak, but we have no choice, because it deals with issues in Lagos State.
“So, there are issues in (Ikoyi) prison about infrastructure, hygiene, accommodation, food and several others. I’ve visited there, so I know.
“I had my Special Assistant on Criminal Prosecution, Dr Babajide Martins, do a major report in conjunction with the Comptroller-General of Prisons of Lagos State to identify a lot of those things.
“So I’m sure that once we start work in earnest this year, we’ll begin to look at those things that will also address a lot of these congestion issues.”
Kazeem also shed light on the controversial nolle prosequi (Latin for ‘We shall no longer prosecute’) entered by Lagos State to discontinue the prosecution of a British-Indian businessman, Deepak Khilnani, accused of an alleged $8.8million (approximately N3.168billion) fraud.
He said it was discovered that in the past, mischievous litigants manipulated the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to “settle scores.”
Following a reorganisation of the department, cases with no conviction potential or those that were non-criminal were eased off the prosecution list.
One of such cases that were civil in nature, Kazeem noted, was the Khilnani case. “The DPP’s office was used to settle scores, scores that are not criminal, scores that are commercial,” Kazeem said
