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Simeon Mpamugoh
The immediate past Chief Judge of Lagos State, Hon. Justice Opeyemi Olufunmilayo Oke was recently named a fellow of the Institute of Criminology and Penology (FICP).
The award was in honour of her excellence in the administration of justice and to celebrate his retirement after 33 years in criminal justice administration in Lagos State.
The president of the institute, Solomon Osagwena said the fellowship conferment to Oke was in recognition of her contribution in the discipline, adding that the institute’s fellow investiture was given to those that would form College of Fellows to upgrade the standard of the institute.
He revealed that the institute was founded in December 2010, and is made up of lawyers, legal officers, academics, security experts, criminologists and penologists. He said the institute has been around across the globe, adding that Nigeria has no business not being part of it.
His words: “We have been employing the services of criminologists and penologists with regards to existing security threats, criminals and criminality in the country.
“We found out that Nigeria has grown up to the stage that it needs such an institute that would provide policy framework for its security architecture. And by the grace of God, we were able to scale through the hurdles of registration. And since coming on board, we have been holding workshops and seminars. We also train security bodies, the prisons, police, and paramilitary set ups.”
He also spoke on assisting the police and military officers that had been laid off. “It is a task that involves everyone in the field: criminologists, psychologists, and the judiciary. We need a teamwork approach in dealing with the situation, especially with what has happened with security in the country.
“Many things have gone wrong and before you can reintegrate these men in uniform into the society, they have to be rehabilitated, and trained. That involves taking them through a process so that they would not create another havoc of crime and criminality in the society.
“So, we need checks and balances by involving the right people for the task. As a security expert who later went into the profession as a consultant, we decided that the area we would take off would be to educate people about crime. We have to upgrade our standard of training by bringing in professional bodies as consultants to upgrade the standard, hence the set up of the institute.
“The institute is at its highest peak so far because if you look at the type of criminality and insurgency going on in the country, you would see that without capacity building to check the vices, we would continue to have crises in the leadership and economy because we have not yet put the round peg in the round hole.
“I believe as we gradually progress, in addition to inducting new fellows, bringing people that matter into the institute, in the next five years, the sky is the limit.”
He said the vision of the institute was to improve the society from what it was, crime-wise, adding that this would be dependent upon people accepting the vision and running with it so that we can attain it.
“The type of terrorism and high level criminality we have in the country shouldn’t be compromised, and it can only be checked through an integrated approach,” he said.
Receiving the award, Hon. Justice Opeyemi Olufunmilayo Oke said: “The award is a big surprise to me. I didn’t see it coming but I just thank God that it came because I’m a criminologist. It is my area, and where I had my Masters degree in the United States. I have been able to bring it into my administration. We have done so many things to improve the justice administration in the criminal sector of Lagos State.”
Present at the event were the Dean Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Prof. Atsenuwa, Acting Chief Judge, Lagos State, Kazeem Alogba who also was conferred with ICP fellow award, and Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Adeola Rahman Ipaye.
