The Court of Appeal First Working Retreat and Annual Conference ended in Lagos with a resolve to commit and make progress on speedy justice delivery.
The Conference is the first of its kind to be preceded by a Working Retreat for the Justices of the Court of Appeal. It’s also the first Conference held outside Abuja.
At the retreat, Justices of the Court were divided into Special Panels and deployed to de-congest the backlog of cases currently being experienced by the Lagos Division.
“As you all know, the Lagos Division was heavily impacted by the unrest that trailed the #ENDSARS protests,” President, Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, told the audience in her opening remarks at the Conference in Lagos.
She said; “It was therefore a chance for us all to collectively demonstrate our resolve to do justice regardless of the circumstances that we may face and I am glad that it was a resounding success. Our commitment to speedy justice delivery remains unbowed.”
Special Panels
Justice Dongban-Mensem said the Court has deployed Special Panels to hear and de-congest matters depending on the circumstances and needs of each Division and that a good example was the newly introduced Working Retreats that just ended with the Conference in Lagos.
Ahead of the Conference, 345 appeals within the Lagos Division were scheduled for hearing. However only about 186 appeals were taken due to the large volumes of applications which take a lot of time.
“We are a little bit disappointed, but I am glad we took 186 appeals and several motion.
“By that we have prepared over 200 appeals for hearing by taking the motions. So it’s not too bad,” Justice Dongban-Mensem told Voice of Nigeria.
The use of technology in aiding speedy and efficient delivery of justice was one of the major talking point at the conference.
Infrastructure deficit was also identified as one of the challenges facing the Court of Appeal in Nigeria. Justice Dongban-Mensem said computerising the court involves a lot of infrastructure, but resources remained a challenge.
“What we are given is not sufficient. So we are hoping that with time, we will be able able to get all the relevant infrastructure to fully computerise our courts. We are ICT compliant and very eager to go ICT,” she said.
She however, said the Court of Appeal remained committed to making progress with ICT the best way possible.
“We are conscious of the fact that we do not contradict each other and with ICT now, our judgements, when delivered will be placed on the internet and divisions will be served so that each division will have an idea of what decision the other division has taken,” Justice Dongban-Mensem added.
In his address, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Tanko, said with time, every Court in Nigeria would be fully automated to enhance seamless virtual sittings in order to decongest the Courtrooms.
“The pace has to be gradual, while we perfect the inherent technicalities to avoid any hitches that may encumber success,” CJN Justice Tanko said.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
