The Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN ), have said that Lagos Stat will be introducing a filtering mechanism to check the police from filing charges that do not meet the minimum evidential threshold at the magistrates’ courts in the state .
The attorney general said this in a communiqué issued by the Lagos State Ministry of Justice following the report of an advisory committee set up to look into the propriety of having policemen, who are not lawyers, prosecuting criminal cases at the magistrates’ courts .
The committee, led by a former Lagos State Solicitor -General , Mr Fola Arthur – Worrey , had blamed the frustration of about 15,000 criminal cases at the magistrate courts on the incompetence of the non-lawyer police prosecutors. The committee recommended that the non – lawyer police prosecutors should be replaced by lawyers .
He said “We accept the recommendation of the committee to put in place a filter mechanism. With immediate effect , we shall commence the deployment of district prosecutors in three pilot magisterial districts – Ebute Meta , Ikorodu and Ogba – to vet charges and review case files presented by the Investigating Police Officers and ensure they meet evidential threshold required by law .”