COORDINATOR, RESTORATIVE JUSTICE CENTER
Adeshola Adekunle-Bello was called to the Nigerian Bar in March 1995; she joined the Lagos State Ministry of Justice as a State Counsel in January 2000.
Her first place of Primary assignment was the newly created Directorate for Citizens Rights. As one of the pioneer staff of the Directorate which was at the time poised for the Lagos State Justice sector reforms, she subsequently was assigned to coordinate the activities of the donor agencies of the programs of the Directorate such as the Ford Foundation, Open Society Initiatives for West Africa (Osiwa), Unicef to mention a few.
Adeshola, aside from being a Trained Mediator and Arbitrator was the head of the “Justice now Publication Unit’’ a bi-monthly Journal of the Ministry of Justice featuring articles relating to the Legal Profession and Justice delivery as a whole. The unit was also in charge of showcasing all Publications and Law Reports Published by the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, at Various NBA Conferences and other related events.
In 2014, she received posting to serve as the pioneer Legal officer of the Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. Here, she distinguished herself, set up the operating procedures for the Legal unit helped in stabilizing the activities of the Ministry which at the time was having overlapping roles with the oversight functions of the Federal Ministry of Mines, Energy & Mineral Resources. She also played a pivotal role in the drafting of the Lagos State Power Sector Reforms Bill signed into Law in year 2017.
In 2019, she was posted to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions as a Prosecutor where she has been serving diligently before her recent appointment as the Head of Restorative Justice Center, Lagos State Ministry of Justice.
HISTORY OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE CENTRE
The Lagos State Restorative Justice Programme is the brain child of the Criminal Justice Sector Reform Committee, Lagos State aimed at improving the Criminal Justice delivery system by taking minor offences and misdemeanours off the dockets of our criminal courts.
To this extent, the Restorative Justice Project Steering Committee was set up sometime in 2017. The Committee published the Restorative Justice Policy and organized training for volunteer restorative justice mediators/facilitators who will conduct Victim/Offender mediation and work to ensure criminal cases are resolved amicably. Also in 2019, the Honourable Chief Judge of Lagos State issued Practice Directions on Restorative Justice.
The Centre was formally launched on the 29th May, 2022 and till date (July, 2025), …. number of cases have been referred to the Centre and treated. The Centre continues to get referrals from the Magistrate Courts and the DPP’s office.
Suffice it to say that the Lagos State Restorative Justice Center is still a work-in-progress and we are growing, learning, and improving every day.
RESPONSIBILTIES AND CORE FUNCTIONS.
- Provide Victims of Crime the opportunity to be actively involved in the outcome of the Process so as to meet their needs for repair of harm done.
- Allow Offenders understand how their act has affected the Victim, provide opportunity to accept responsibility and make amends or repair the harm.
- Give the Community and stakeholders of a crime the access to participate in the outcome of the process.
- Ensure regular meeting of the Steering Committee and other stake holders.
- Determine the most suitable Restorative Justice Process for each case.
- Receive referrals from referring agencies and distributes to appropriate facilitator/Unit
- Training and retraining of Facilitators and referring agencies.
- Keep a proper data on all activities done in the Centre for appropriate use.
- Drafting of Terms of Settlements where matters are finalized and status report when they are Unresolved.
Working with other Restorative Justice agencies i.e CMC, Community Services and the Lagos Multi-door Court House for