Justice ministry secures 250 convictions in terrorism-related cases in one year

In the last one year, President Bola Tinubu’s administration has secured 250 convictions in terrorism-related cases, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, said.

Mr Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), made the disclosure in Abuja on Friday while presenting the achievements of the Federal Ministry of Justice from May 2023 to 2024.

President Tinubu earlier directed the 47 members of his cabinet to present their performance reports to Nigerians in commemoration of the government’s one year in office anniversary.

Reeling out the achievements of the government in the justice sector, Mr Fagbemi said a functional justice system remains the bedrock of every nation’s socioeconomic and political development.

“In furtherance of the Ministry’s mandate of enhancing national security and safety through prosecution, the Ministry secured 160 convictions for criminal offences, 87 convictions for terrorism cases, 3 novel convictions for extremist terrorism actors involved in the radicalisation of children and violence against women,” he said.

Anti-Corruption

Speaking on President Tinubu’s efforts in tackling corruption, the Justice Minister said pointed at a the adoption of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS), which he called a “major positive development” in combating graft.

Mr Fagbemi explained that the implementation of the strategy has brought about “modest achievements such as increased transparency with the growth of initiatives like Freedom of Information, beneficial ownership disclosures, open contracting, routine corruption risk assessments are carried out to determine vulnerabilities to corruption, including systems reviews to tackle the anomaly from the roots recorded.”

In terms of efforts to recover stolen government assets, the minister said his office facilitated the asset sharing agreement between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Bailiwick of Jersey.

He disclosed that the agreement was signed in February 2024 for the return of £2,125,944 as proceeds of corruption.

Similarly, Mr Fagbemi said his office in April 2024 concluded negotiations of a settlement agreement with Glencore International A.G. wherein Glencore is expected to pay the sum of $50 million as penalty and compensation for certain activities in Nigeria.

He said the government in the last one year witnessed a landmark decision in an arbitration instituted against Nigeria by Process and Industrial Development Limited, wherein a UK commercial Court set aside an arbitral award of over $11 billion, granted against Nigeria in the United Kingdom for breach of a gas supply and processing agreement.

Mr Fagbemi said “due to concerted efforts of our legal team Nigeria has been awarded interim costs in the sum £20Million against P&ID.”

In the reporting period, the minister revealed that a total of 625 cases instituted against the government before states, federal and ECOWAS Courts were served and responded to by the Justice Ministry.

He added that the ministry received and treated 593 requests for legal advice and petitions from May 2023 till date.

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“In all, the Ministry obtained 235 judgements from May, 2023 to date.”

Mr Fagbemi who assumed office as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice on 21 August 2023, is saddled with the onerous task of driving key reforms in Nigeria’s justice system.

With rampant corruption and a weak legal system, many cases (criminal and civil) are stuck in courts for years unending, especially suits involving politically exposed persons.

But, the Tinubu-led government recently held a national justice sector reform conference in Abuja with a view to tackling the myriad of challenges that have rendered justice elusive to the Nigerian populace.