Excerpt of interview conducted by Aliyu Medina, with the Ekiti State Signage and Advertising Agency’s Management Team
Good morning DG , Legal Adviser and Operations Manager. We saw your vehicle loaded with some sign-posts, we spoke with some of your agents and they told us how citizens can take laws into their hands. How do you handle such citizens, do you have mechanism for dealing with citizens who obstruct your agency’s activities?
Operations manager : Anytime we go out, if there is anybody who try to obstruct us, we will report the case to the DG and he will take disciplinary actions against such person.
Question 2: Legal adviser, can you tell us how the agency manage such instance?
Legal Adviser: The obstruction of the young man this morning of stopping the activities of a legal body that is supported by law, it is an offence that should be handed over to the relevant authorities which is the police , they will investigate and subsequently charge him to court if he is found guilty of the offence.
Question 3: Ma your position as a legal adviser, is it a new office under this dispensation?
Legal adviser: Yes. And I will like to say a very big kudos to the attorney general for this innovation, he was the one that brought out the idea of sending lawyers from the ministry of justice as a legal adviser to the various MBAs in the state, so we could monitor and also offer legal advice that will guide this agencies and also reduce litigation in the process, because we discovered that Over time, some omissions might be carried out by the agencies, ministries and departments in the course of carrying out their duties. But for the fact that there is no legal person in the agency to advice, we now have to like clean up after everything just to reduce the coat of litigation and also put a stop to all the proceedings that happens when this this dispensation came in. So I think it is a very good idea and it is helping all the ministries, departments and agencies in the state.
Question 4: DG sir, will I be correct to say that signage and ministry of justice are collaborating ?
DG: Perfectly so.