2,592 offenders sweep, wash toilets

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• Lagos captures 62,789 criminals in data base

Lagos State Government yesterday said that it had sentenced no fewer than 2,592 offenders to compulsory community service such as washing of toilets and sweeping of public places in the last 11 months. This was as the government also disclosed that it had completed processing of 1,369 criminal case files out of 1,440 sent to it by the police.
The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Ade Ipaye, disclosed this during the 2014 ministerial press briefing at the state Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.
Ipaye said that the conviction of the offenders to undergo community service was not only to reduce the congestion in the prisons but also to check stigmatisation of the convicted persons over minor offences.

He said: “I am pleased to inform you that the programme has continued to wax stronger. The criminal justice doesn’t need to incarcerate offenders in order to be effective.
“Between April 2013 and March 2014, a total of 2,595 offenders were sentenced to various terms of community service across the 12 magisterial districts of Lagos State in term of criminal justice.
“This number represents those who would have been incarcerated with the consequential disruption to their economic, social and family lives. This is more so that many of the offenders are between the ages of 20 and 40 and mostly males.
“In effect, we have succeeded in lowering the prison population without compromising the criminal justice administration system.” The commissioner also promised that there would no longer be any hidden place for criminals in the state, saying the state Crime Data Registration had captured 62,789 data of crimes committed by various criminals.
He said: “Currently, the Crime Data Register is a robust system in terms of information technology infrastructure and functionality. As at the end of 2014, there are now 62,789 unique records, of which 40,000 have biometric and fingerprints.”

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