The Ogun State Government has explained the rationale behind a raft of criminal justice reform bills recently approved by the State Executive Council, saying the proposed legislations are aimed at addressing gaps in the state’s legal framework on missing persons, ritual killings and other emerging crimes.
Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade (SAN), disclosed this on Tuesday during an interview on Frontline on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, while explaining four bills approved for transmission to the Ogun State House of Assembly.
Among the proposed legislation is the Missing Persons Bill, which seeks to abolish the widely observed practice of asking families to wait 24 or 48 hours before reporting missing persons to security agencies.
According to Ogungbade, the proposed law is intended to eliminate delays that often frustrate rescue efforts and investigations by making it mandatory to report disappearances immediately.
“You probably would be aware of this practice where people will report others as missing only to be advised to wait for 24 hours or 48 hours before coming. That now is being outlawed. There’s now a duty to report as early as possible,” he said.
He noted that studies have consistently shown that the first 24 hours after a disappearance are the most critical in locating missing persons.
“Research has shown that the first 24 hours are crucial in cases of missing persons,” he stated.
The Attorney-General said the bill would also impose penalties on individuals who fail to promptly report the disappearance of persons whose whereabouts they are reasonably expected to know.
“And where a person who ought to report—for example, a father who knows his child is missing, or a mother who knows her daughter, or somebody whose presence or location they should know—is missing, fails to do so, it carries a penalty under this law,” he said.
Ogungbade explained that the proposed legislation would provide a unified legal framework for investigating missing persons cases by removing bureaucratic obstacles that currently slow investigations.
He disclosed that his office receives numerous reports of missing persons involving both children and adults but said existing laws do not sufficiently empower law enforcement agencies to respond with the urgency such cases require.
He cited unresolved disappearance cases, including that of a former Olabisi Onabanjo University student who reportedly went missing after leaving the institution to visit her boyfriend in Sagamu, as well as another woman who disappeared in Ota.
According to him, investigators often encounter delays in accessing banking records, telecommunications data and other information needed to trace victims or identify suspects.
“It’s been one challenge or the other getting access to data that would help law enforcement to track their movements,” he lamented.
To address the challenge, Ogungbade said the bill provides for stronger collaboration between the Ministry of Justice, the Nigeria Police Force and the judiciary to facilitate quicker access to vital records.
“There will be collaboration between my office and the Office of the Commissioner of Police that expressly is stated in the bill and also with the judiciary. This bill makes provision for the police or any law enforcement agency to apply ex parte to get certain records from service providers. But then in extreme cases, the police can write directly to the person holding those records to make them available under penalty of law,” he explained.
The Attorney-General added that the proposed law would introduce rapid-response protocols for child abduction cases by ensuring immediate alerts are sent to transport unions, motor parks and other relevant agencies once a child is reported missing.
“My office will be working in concert with the Commissioner of Police of Ogun State, putting certain people on standby. Because in most cases, when you steal a child, you firstly have to transport that child outside Ogun State. So there’ll be protocols in place, for example, alerting all major car parks, alerting transport unions,” he said.
He noted that the legislation is designed to break bureaucratic bottlenecks that delay investigations and improve coordination among security agencies, adding that such collaboration would become even more effective with the eventual introduction of state policing.
Ogungbade also explained that the government is proposing a separate law to tackle ritual killings by specifically criminalising the use of human beings and human body parts for ritual purposes.
According to him, while suspects are currently prosecuted for murder or offences relating to tampering with human remains, those laws do not adequately address the underlying practice of ritual killings.
“What we have all been doing in Ogun State and I believe in all others is to charge persons involved in ritual killings for murder and in some cases for tampering with human remains. We normally get the sentence of death but that does not actually address the root issues. So we feel that by having a law that actually criminalizes rituals involving the use of human parts,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the proposed legislation would be the first of its kind in Nigeria and would significantly strengthen efforts to combat ritual killings and human sacrifice.
“It will be a first in Nigeria and I am convinced that it will be far-reaching, at least to cover up once and for all this menace of human sacrifice,” Ogungbade added.
