Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, has urged the management of Nigerian Law School to post their students only to law firms with Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) facilities.

The CJN also expressed need for every law firm to make provisions for ADR mechanism in their chambers as a way of promoting peace and harmony in the country. Onnoghen, represented by Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello, gave the advice yesterday at the inauguration of Bar and Bench House, a law firm, in Abuja. He noted that adversarial system of resolving conflict was no longer fashionable.

According to him: “People are now moving away from adversarial system of dispute resolution to alternative dispute resolution. This promotes peace and harmony in the society.

“The Law School should send students only to law firms with ADR facilities like we have seen in this edifice of the Bar and Bench House.”The CJN further lauded the principal partner of the Bar and Bench Publishers, Chief Ogwu Onoja (SAN), for providing training resources for both judges and lawyers.He said: “This edifice represents a congenial atmosphere for judges and lawyers. It represents world class in terms of standards. Onoja’s calmness represents diligence and high sense of articulation.

“The Bar and Bench House is a meeting point for judges and lawyers, and we will seek the firm’s collaboration in the training of lawyers.”Meanwhile, Mr. Israel Olorundare (SAN), who spoke on behalf of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, commended Onoja, whose 50th birthday coincided with the inauguration of the building, for the “huge investment made in furtherance of legal jurisprudence in Nigeria.”

Also, in his welcome address, the celebrant, Onoja, expressed concerns over what he described as archaic laws of antiquities in the nation’s statute book.He further identified such laws to include Sections 84, 97 and 99 of the Sheriffs and Civil Procedure Act, which is a colonial law enacted in 1945.

The SAN, therefore, called on the judiciary to use the instrumentality of “judicial activism” to bring such laws to a desired end.

In this article: