With support from the Open Society Initiative of West Africa (OSIWA) and in partnership with the Attorney General of Lagos State, Gavel officially deployed JUSTICE CLOCK to the Lagos State Ministry of Justice.
The web-based platform serves as a central database and provides an easy-to-use information-sharing feature amongst stakeholders – this will aid the reduction of the high percentage of awaiting trial persons, and introduce/manage non-custodial sentencing measures.
The platform is designed to help improve the pace of criminal justice in Lagos State by automating key time-bound components of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State. In the project’s design process, our tech team ensured that the platform is user-friendly and mirrors the already existing process.
The Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN) described the platform as a remarkable development that would be pivotal in achieving an improved justice delivery process. He further noted that the issuance of legal advice has remained a confrontational issue as litigants recurrently complain that case files stay too long in the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) without legal advice.
An extract from his remark stated that “So, we have decided to deploy technology to further improve the process of issuing legal advice”.
He also stated that technology has been identified as one of the developmental processes for effective justice delivery which is why the government partnered with Citizen’s Gavel on the deployment of the new application.
“We recognize the importance of technology and it is in light of this that we have in partnership with Citizens Gavel, a civic tech NGO, with the support of Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), deployed a Case management solution to improve on the operational efficiency of the DPP’s office.
Our Team Lead, Nelson Olanipekun explained the development of Justice Clock as a web-based solution platform became imperative due to the need to improve access to justice, eliminate pre-trial problems, and delay in issuance of legal advice.
He stated that “With this tech-platform, access to justice, challenges with pre-trial detention and the low-paced justice delivery process will be improved; especially amidst the Covid-19 Wave”.
The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mrs. Olayinka Adeyemi in her remarks reiterated that the new platform will improve efficiency and service delivery while solving avoidable problems associated with the issuance of legal advice.
“We would not fail on the timeline given for issuance of legal advice as it would enhance our service delivery”.
The deployment of this tech platform will no doubt go a long way in revolutionizing access to justice and rapidly increase justice delivery.
Justice Clock will drive performance and efficiency, help track legal advice and charge sheet as well as quick issuance of same, the tech platform would provide an online repository for case files in compliance with best practices, and much more.
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