An Ogun state Magistrate, Tosin Okikiolu has received a
certificate of merit award from the Chief Judge of Ogun State.
Given under the seal of the Chief Judge, Justice M.A. Dipeolu,
he was given the award dated the 16th day of September, 2019, for
his dedication and hard work at the bench.
It is believed that the proficiency and dedication of His
worship was voiced abroad through the article, ”A True
Magistrate by Earl Eigbe Alright”.
TheNigerialawyer (TNL) congratulates His Worship for the
well-deserved accolade.
Below Read the article
The True Magistrate By Earl Eigbe Alright
This is about what I experienced personally on Monday 9th
and Wednesday 11th September, 2019 at the Chief Magistrate Court 2,
Wasinmi, Ogun State.
I have always wondered why Magistrates keep on adjourning
and adjourning when their court is one of Summary Jurisdiction;
maybe they do not understand what that means in the first place.
Before I studied law, jurists like Judge Judy and the likes,
including people like Divorce Court made wanting to become a lawyer
and argue in court, sweet. I remember a Magistrate in Makurdi who
would always insist that lawyers made oral submissions rather than
adopting written addresses. His argument was that the beauty of law
practice and litigation was to hear lawyers argue with good oral
grammar – that was true advocacy. Adopt papers at the High Court,
but let your client and the gallery enjoy your advocacy in the
Magistrate court.
Tuesday last week, a friend requested I helped him go to the
Zonal Intervention Squad, Obada Oko, Abeokuta to help bail a
client. These guys are under the A.I.G., Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos and
are nicknamed SARS (rather than their official alias – ZIS). As an
informed lawyer, I was careful not to push because I know SARS to
be notorious in framing armed robbery and the likes on suspects. To
cut long story short, the matter was for Obtaining by False
Pretense and Threat to life. Wetin really happen? The suspect was
the secretary of a cooperative; he introduced the complainant to
the cooperative and now that the cooperative has not been able to
pay back the invested sum by the complainant, he arrest is link,
the suspect – a pure Civil Case.
When ZIS refused to release him after 7 days and also
refused me access to him, I filed a Motion to Produce (dead or
alive) so that his bail could be heard by a Magistrate. ZIS
officials got wind of this and quickly arraigned him on the 10th
day in Wasinmi, which was the same day the Motion was to be heard
in Abeokuta. This was when I saw what a true Magistrate ought to be
like.
O.O. Okikiolu (Mr.), Magt. II, Itori Magisterial District,
sitting at Wasinmi told the prosecution that since all their
witnesses where in court (besides, they had detained him for 10
days and wouldn’t need any more time for further investigation)
directed that the trial commenced. I mean, when plea is taking in
his court, it sounds like:
Are you guilty or not guilty?
Do you want your case to be tried in this court or in the High
Court?
Do you consent to Summary Trial?
Consequently, Prosecution took its 3 witnesses and tendered
3 exhibits (Statements of the Complainant, her husband and also the
Defendant). The charge was for Obtaining by False Pretense,
Stealing and Threat to Life. By the time Prosecution closed their
case, I was asked to open my Defense. Just like that. But the Case
of the prosecution was so weak that I made a plea of No Case
Submission. Like joke, like joke, His Worship wanted to write the
Ruling on my application and deliver it on the same day, but the
Watching Brief counsel complained that he had other matters to
attend to and he was duty bound to watch the trial as instructed by
his client. The matter was then adjourned to Wednesday 11th of
September, 2019 (two days after). May I mention here and now that
this Magistrate only sits on Mondays and Wednesdays as he doubles
as an administrative staff of the Ogun State Judiciary.
On Wednesday, the Magistrate gave an amazing Ruling on the
No Case Submission striking out the Charge of Threat to Life and
directing that the Defendant opened his defense as regards the
Obtaining by False Pretense and also Stealing. His Worship cited
laws and numerous cases far beyond what I had referenced in giving
his Ruling. This industry built my confidence in the court. I took
only one Witness, the Defendant himself and closed my case. I was
directed to address the Court for the Court was willing to deliver
judgment on the same day. I had to request for an hour stand down
to put my points in order.
The court proceeded with other matters and I quickly
contacted my support system in matters and situations like this –
the YLF of Ibadan Branch and also the League of Colossus of A.A.U.,
Ekpoma. My colleagues flooded my Whatsapp chats with cases and laws
to support that the Prosecution had not fulfilled the requirement
of proving their case beyond all reasonable doubts.
When the case was called, I was given a 10minutes to address
the Court, which was extended to 15minutes. This was about 2pm
thereabouts. I was shocked when His Worship said, Mr. Eigbe, if you
can wait, I would want to write and deliver my judgment today, just
that you may wait till about 5pm before returning to Ibadan. I told
the court I wouldn’t mind waiting till 6pm. His Worship delivered
the judgment at about 5:35pm; the court was filled, and those
listening from outside were as many as half of those inside the
Court. So in 2 days, O.O. Okikiolu (Mr.), Magt. II, Itori
Magisterial District, sitting at Wasinmi had completed a case of
Obtaining by False Pretense, Stealing and Threat to Life from
Arraignment to Judgment. I mean, he took 4 witnesses, 5 Exhibits,
wrote a Ruling on a No Case Submission, wrote and delivered a
judgment in 2 working days.
Allow me tell you some of my observations:
The moment a Defendant elected Summary Trial, he usually
completed the Trial and Defense on the same day, making his cases
and work very neat;
He is young and so has so much energy to expend on the job – I
mean, His Worship had flu. We even had to close the court’s windows
and turn off the fan at a particular time because of his running
nose, yet, he did not use ill health as an excuse to adjourn any
case;
He was tech savvy – he had his tab on his table where he always
cross checked laws, cases and precedents to guide his
proceedings;
He was damn intelligent – his reliance on far more cases and
laws than the ones I cited when delivering his Ruling on the No
Case Submission gave me confidence to make an Oral Address
immediately after closing my case, even though I would have wanted
to file a robust Final Written Address;
He proved that no Criminal Case over which a Magistrate has
jurisdiction ought to last more than 2 weeks in Court, thereby
reducing our prison congestion and the likes;
His speed in attending to cases made his Court’s List always
having few cases – unnecessary adjournments crowd dairies (in the
future);
The speed at which he attends to cases puts the Police and
Prosecutor in that Jurisdiction to sit up, investigate properly and
be ready for trial. In fact, I heard him more than once say, once I
have opened a case, no more “Report of Settlement” or “Complainant
want to withdraw.” If you want to do that, do that before Trial
starts.
Furthermore, I noticed that many counsel, perhaps, because of a
desire to reap more Appearance Fees or get their Professional Fees
are usually the cause of unnecessary adjournments in court. Since I
became a lawyer, this is the first Magistrate I know to dispense
off cases with so much energy, intelligence, industry and speed. If
all our Magistrates were like him, our prisons could never be
congested and no suspect would be afraid of going to Court. In
fact, it is the Police and other that would not want to frame
nonsense on people and take them to Court. You would not also have
to spend all those monies on tips and the likes to perfect bail,
for before we could even perfect bail, judgment was already
delivered.
So I suggest that one way to reduce the troubles in our
Prisons, better our Judicial System and deliver justice quickly is
to appoint young, intelligent and technology savvy Magistrates. Not
those ones that come late, can’t write for an hour and need
adjournment over a prayer that requires an on-the-spot Bench
Ruling.
Yes, two of my prayers in my No Case Submission failed. One
of my prayers in my Final Address failed. However, the Defendant
was discharged and acquitted; the Magistrate cited 2017 and 2018
cases to show that the Prosecution did not just fail in Proving
beyond All Reasonable Doubt, but that they failed in Proving
anything at all.
My Goal of sharing this experience is to encourage O.O.
Okikiolu (Mr.), Magt. II, Itori Magisterial District, sitting at
Wasinmi to continue the good work, to encourage other Magistrates
to toll his path and to suggest to colleagues that whenever the
Police or any other security agency is refusing to grant your
client bail or arraign them, rather than go through the stress of
filing FREPO at the High Court, just file a Motion to Produce in
line with SECTIONS 159, 32, 30, 6, 7 AND 8 OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2015 (if the State doesn’t have its own ACJL);
SECTIONS 33, 35, 36, 39 AND 41 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL
REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA 1999 (AS AMENDED); SECTIONS 2, 3 AND 7 OF THE
ANTI-TORTURE ACT 2017; AND UNDER THE INHERENT JURISDICTION OF THE
COURT praying the court for AN ORDER directing the Respondents to
produce the Applicant who is presently and continuously in the
detention of the Respondents since …………, particularly in the office
of the …….Respondents before this Court so that his bail
application can be heard. If you file an Affidavit of Urgency along
with it, your Motion could be held on the same day or a day after.
And case law states that the Prosecution cannot object to such bail
application should the court grant this Order.
And the above application does not forbid you for also
filing for the Enforcement of Fundamental Rights or Malicious
Arrest and Prosecution. The process, I have observed by experience,
is faster than FREPO.
My name is Earl, and I am Alright.
GracevilleChambers, Ibadan and Lagos.
Subscribe ToNairalaw News!
Read more true-magistrate-ogun-state-judiciary-awards-his-worship-tosin-okikiolu/
Summit Speakers Chart Path for Kwara’s Economic
Development
Building a virile economy, either for a country or a state, is a
collective task.
While the government plays her own part, citizens are expected
to fulfil their l side of the bargain, by complementing the
efforts.
These were the unanimous views of participants at the maiden
Kwara State Economic and Poverty Alleviation Summit held in Kwara
Hotel Ilorin.
The auspicious event themed, “Role
of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Youth Participation in the
Economic Wellbeing of Kwara State,” was organized by Centre for
Hunger and Poverty Alleviation and Research (CHPAR).
The Executive Director of CHPAR, Alabidun Shuaib Abdulrahman
said the state is blessed with enormous potentials in human,
materials and natural resources capable of making it a global
‘economic hub’.
He therefore called on critical stakeholders with brilliant
ideas to address the issue of youth joblessness and perceived
socio-economic backwardness in the state.
“During our research, we noticed that there are profound
strategies which can be used to solve developmental challenges in
the State. We realized that we can all come together and brainstorm
on how to contribute our quota towards the socio-economic growth of
our Dear State. Hence, we decided to convene the Kwara State
Economic and Poverty Alleviation Summit,” he said.
Speaking on the same vein, the guest speaker, Mr. La-Kadri Yusuf
said the State once boasted of a thriving economy, however with
focus and concentration on white-collar jobs, most of the youths
abandoned artisanal business ventures, and opted for limited
skilled jobs.
He urged the State Government to invest massively in youths so
as to boost creativity and drive economic growth in various
productive sectors.
Another Speaker, Asiwaju Mashood
Shittu, maintained that if Kwara is desirous of building its local
economy, then it must identify, nurture and groom young
entrepreneurs.
He said: “The wellbeing of our youths should be paramount to all
of us. This is because the wellbeing of our youths play a vital
role in the wellbeing of our economy.”
Shittu, however advised the State Government to create an
enabling environment to enable creative minds and young
entrepreneurs to harness their creative talents.
The Speaker, Kwara State House of
Assembly, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Salihu Danladi, asserted that the summit
is coming at a time the State is steadily witnessing remarkable
transformation under the purposeful leadership of Governor
AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, disclosing that the State Assembly would
give accelerated hearing and passage to a bill establishing the
“Kwara State Social Investment Programme” which was recently
forwarded to them by the Governor.
The Speaker, who was represented by Hon. Olawoyin Magaji, the
House Majority Leader said: “I wish to assure the organizers of
this great and special summit, that our State Assembly will
support, partner and collaborate with you. Just like Centre for
Hunger and Poverty Alleviation and Research, the Kwara State of
House of Assembly desire to see our beloved State speedily attains
quantum socio-economic growth and human capital development, in no
distant future.