The Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola on Monday attended the special service organized to herald the beginning of the 2012/2013 Legal year, appealing to all the judicial officers before whom people will be brought in the implementation of the new Traffic law to dispense justice without fear or favour.
The governor who spoke at the Central Mosque, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Lagos before a gathering of serving and retired judges, Magistrates, senior lawyers and other legal practitioners said they must ensure that no innocent person is unjustly punished.
He explained that as a government the present administration in Lagos State has worked with the Legislature to enact a life changing law which will of course need the support of the judicial arm to give effect to it.
“In our state today, road traffic and public transportation has played quite some roles in defining the quality of life we live. How much time we spend at home and how much productivity we ultimately get through when we get to work. How much sleep and wellbeing we ultimately enjoy.
Indeed, it is a major determinant of our life expectancy. Needless deaths, untimely deaths have become a scourge in our national life”, the Governor added.
Mr Fashola said the people face enormous challenges that put to test its resolve for self-governance including issues of national security which has at its base the twin pillars of law and order.
He said with the very best efforts, the Parliamentarians will make laws that are aimed at securing life and property while the executive will continue to exert itself towards implementing those laws, adding that whether it succeeds of not will depend on the Judiciary.
The governor also underscored the role judges play in engineering the society, saying the nation’s law books are replete with judges who have helped to engineer the society and who have passed on.
He urged the judges who serve in Lagos today to draw inspiration and example from those types of judges both locally and internationally.
“You must also understand that you are social and economic engineers. How quickly Justice is dispensed will determine how quickly citizens get a house. It will determine whether they get it at all. Indeed how quickly and correctly Justice is dispensed will determine how quickly people get homes”.
“In a part of Lagos, we are building a road which has led to the acquisition of some properties. Some cases are in court and because they are in court, the road cannot continue. The interest of one citizen has affected the interest of other citizens. Because one man is in court, our contractor has stopped work on the road at one point and jumped to the other point where the fence of the property sits and continued the road”, the Governor added.
The Governor said the road in question will not be useful to anyone until the contractor is allowed by the court to move across and connect the road from where he was stopped.
He reiterated that as the new legal year commences, the members of the judicial arm must work hard to build a state that everyone would be proud of and remember that they are all inheritors of a very great legacy that was passed on to them.
He prayed for good health and the mercies of God for the members of the Bar and the Bench as they commence the journey into the new legal year and that all those who seek justice before them will get it.
