Ondo govt plans to create legal departments in MDAs

 

Ondo govt plans to create legal departments in MDAs

The Ondo State Government on Friday said it would create a legal department in all government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs in the state.

The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Titiloye Charles, disclosed this when the management of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, paid him a courtesy visit in his office on Friday in Akure. He said apart from the MDAs, a legal department would also be set up in all government-owned institutions. He explained that the plan was informed by the inability of the managements of most government-run institutions  to  properly analyse and interpret legal issues and their implications on government businesses and transactions. According to him, when created, the legal departments will serve as  a liaison office between the MDAs and government institutions, as well as the Ministry of Justice and would greatly reduce the incidence of avoidable legal fines. “The creation of legal departments in various MDAs will reduce drastically the incidence of recurring embarrassment to the state government,” he said.

The commissioner, who promised to look into the request of the Vice Chancellor for the deployment of legal officers to help beef up its legal department and the teaching of medical laws, said such would help medical practitioners to be more professional in their practice. Charles, who reiterated the government’s commitment to support the state university to make it a world class citadel of learning, said that government would do everything within its power to resolve the land issues between the institution and the host community. The attorney-general, who was a member of the Visitation Panel inaugurated by the Visitor to the university,  Gov. Oluwarotmi Akeredolu, commended the vice chancellor for sustaining the standard already laid in the institution. He added that the state government had implemented most of the recommendations of the panel. Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor, Fatusi, used the event to correct the impression that UNIMED is a monolithic institution.

 

He said rather it offered several other courses, including bachelor’s degrees in Radiological Sciences and Health Sciences. The university has a Faculty of Medical Rehabilitation, the first of its kind in Nigeria. Fatusi described as a welcome development the approval granted by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to the Federal University of Technology, Akure  (FUTA) to run a bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery. He decried the shortage of medical personnel in Nigeria, lamenting that doctors travelled out of the country on a weekly basis to seek greener pastures abroad. “The need cannot be overstressed to train more medical doctors, hence calling for the establishment of more schools to teach Medicine and Surgery in Nigeria. NAN reports that the high point of the visit was the presentation of a letter of congratulations to the Attorney-General on his reappointment.

Nigeria News Paper