Mr. Fola Arthur-Worrey is a legal practitioner by training but an administrator by choice, who loves the challenges of managing change in an adversarial environment. His career has been in the public service, serving as Director of Public Prosecutions from 1996 to 1998, Solicitor General, Lagos State and Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Justice, from 1998 to 2006, and then as the Commissioner for Lands, and Chairman of the State Tenders Board, before retiring in 2007.
During this time, he chaired, or was a member of, many Lagos state review committees, commissions and panels of inquiry, and was involved in many policy, legislative and negotiation processes. He was deeply involved in developing and implementing the judicial reform processes under the direction of the then state Attorney General and former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and in 2008 and 2017, chaired The Lagos State First Level Justice and Magistracy Reform Committee and The Lagos State Blueprint Committee on Justice Reform respectively.
He was recalled to active service by Governor Fashola in 2007 and appointed as CEO of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, with responsibility for raising and managing private funds to support the police and other federal law-enforcement agencies, and served as a member of the Lagos State Security Council, which was responsible for security policy formulation and crime prevention strategy. He retired finally from public service in 2015.
Mr. Arthur-Worrey has authored four books, The Prosecutor in Public Prosecutions (in its fourth reprint), Cross Examination - Mastering the Trial Lawyers Most Effective Weapon (co-authored with Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, SAN), The Diaries of Mr. Michael, a novel which won the Association of Nigerian Authors' National Prose Prize in 2004, and a photo book, Aerial Lagos –A Bird’s Eye View of Africa’s Largest Metropolis.
Today, our guest speaker is involved in private legal practice, and continues his speaking engagements at training seminars, workshops and special events, something he has been doing all over the country since 2005. He also runs consultancy services as Fola Arthur-Worrey consultancy for governments, agencies and the private sector on governance policy issues, legal matters and security funding.