In the 2017/2018 legal year alone, 17,076 new cases were filed before the Federal High Court across its various divisions in the country.
Speaking at the special court session held at the court’s headquarters in Abuja on September 17, 2018, to mark the commencement of the 2018/2019 legal year, the court’s Chief Judge, Justice Adamu Abdu-Kafarati, said although 15,076 cases were disposed of during the last legal year, at the beginning of the new 2018/2019 legal year, 191,766 cases were still pending in the court.
The fast-approaching election year is bound to open a floodgate of political cases while the doors of the court will remain wide open to receive the regular cases.
This much was emphasised by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, during the opening ceremony of the 34th Annual Judges’ Conference of the Federal High Court which held in Abuja on September 18, 2018.
“My Lords, as the election year draws closer, your courts will be flooded with applications bordering on pre- and post-election matters requiring adjudication,” Justice Onnoghen said.
Impliedly, the Federal High Court will be contending with a number of cases far beyond 200,000 in the new legal year, yet the court parades only about 80 judges.
Also speaking during the special court session to mark the commencement of the Supreme Court’s 2018/2019 new legal year and the swearing-in of the 30 newly-appointed SANs in Abuja on September 24, the CJN, although he did not disclose the total number of appeals filed in the apex court during the last legal year, acknowledged that there was an “increasing volume of cases” being filed before the court.
Acknowledging the huge volume of cases judges were consistently inundated with, both the CJN and Justice Abdu-Kafarati lauded their colleagues for a job well done in the last legal year.
The CJN said the Supreme Court, during the previous 2017/2018 legal year, “considered” a total of 1,097 criminal and civil motions as well as 438 criminal and civil appeals.
According to him, a total 297 judgments were delivered by the apex court during the period.
Lauding the Justices for the feat, the CJN said, “This is by all means an impressive report considering the persistent and increasing volume of cases that continue to come before this court.”
By his own assessment of the performance of the judges and staff of the Federal High Court during the last legal year, Justice Abdu-Kafarati said, “In totality, the court, judges and staff have done very well and I salute you all for living up to the goals of the founding fathers of the court whose memories I respect, cherish and applaud.”
As shown by the statistics supplied annually by various courts, the best efforts of the judges can hardly reduce the backlog of court cases which continues to impede speedy and effective justice administration in Nigeria and prepare the ground for judicial corruption.
With the seriousness of the myriads of the problems of Nigeria’s poor justice delivery system staring all in the face, the issue dominated contributions by various speakers, who came up with suggestions on how to confront the crisis, during the Supreme Court’s special court session for the commencement of the new legal year last week.
CJN advocates e-filing, frontloading of evidence
The CJN reiterated the need to “ensure progressive upgrade of the judiciary especially in areas of administration, practice directions, independence of the judiciary and contributing significantly to the fight against corruption.”
He explained that efforts were being made to put in place an Information Communication Technology-driven court system.
He also disclosed the plan to constitute “a National Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure” in order to enhance the administration of justice in the country.
Justice Onnoghen said the committee would be made up of judicial officers, legal practitioners from the local chapters of the Nigerian Bar Association, academics and the National Judicial Institute.
Giving a hint of the task lying ahead of the committee, the CJN emphaised the need to introduce e-filing in the courts’ rules and practice direction.
He said, “The Rules of practice and procedure should make provision for concessionaires to handle the service of court processes and documents. Also, the Rules of Practice and procedure should provide for e-filing to be done either by courts or by external management service providers.”
He added that there was a need for regular updates of courts’ websites, stressing also that “there must be computerised records in each court.”
The CJN said entries must also be made and posted on the website of the judiciary, “where information on the type of cases, progress made, judgments etc., can be accessed anywhere in Nigeria, weekly, monthly or quarterly.”
The President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Paul Usoro (SAN), also made similar call during the Federal High Court’s special court session to mark the commencement of the 2018/2019 new legal year.
Lamenting the absence of basic information about the Federal High Court such as statistics of the cases being handled by the court on the court’s website, Usoro recommended that “in the interest of the public, the publication of such material information, data, statistics relating to the court’s activities on a regular basis should, at the minimum, regularly be on the court’s website.”
Reiterating the need to deploy technology in the court system, the CJN said “It is obvious that the conventional method of justice delivery in Nigerian courts today is cumbersome, time-consuming and susceptible to loss or theft of court documents.”
He said,”With e-justice system, case management will be automated, payment of fees will be made through dedicated websites to reduce corruption, and forms that simplify and streamline court proceedings will be available to court users online.”
Reeling out the achievements of the Supreme Court in its bid to achieve an IT-driven court system, Justice Onnoghen said, during the 2017/ 2018 legal year, the court achieved some milestones, including retrofitting the Supreme Court, “which has made all court proceedings to be available on High Quality Video Format with FTR Recording Equipment.”
He also said the court had as from July 16, 2018 commenced the implementation of serving hearing notices through the Nigeria Legal Email System.
According to him, 23,000 lawyers have been registered for the email and 18,000 already activated the platform.
He said with the Supreme Court now present on social media with functional accounts on Youtube and Twitter, there would be “effective dissemination of information on Supreme Court of Nigeria operations and events”.
The CJN also disclosed that the Supreme Court was contemplating strengthening the appellate system “by enabling applications for leave to appeal, where applicable, to be dealt with in chambers.”
The CJN also reiterated the need for courts to impose punitive fines on lawyers who filed frivolous applications to delay cases.
The Supreme Court has already started this, with the court only in March this year, imposing a fine of N2m on a lawyer, Mr Tolu Babaleye, for filing a frivolous appeal to delay the hearing of an appeal filed by a former Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, who was then challenging his suspension by the Green Chamber for 180 legislative days.
The CJN said he believed “we have reached that stage in our legal system where it is needful for our rules of court and procedure to provide for the award of punitive or wasted costs by the court for frivolous litigation or delays caused by counsel.”
Call against unethical practices, corruption
Justice Onnoghen also said, the National Judicial Council would “write to each head of court within the states to avoid conflict between the Chief Judge, Grand Kadi and President of the Customary Court of Appeal where they exist.”
On the need to ensure compliance with profession ethics by lawyers, the CJN said, “The Bar and the bench should ensure that they play their roles in restoring ethics to the legal profession.”
He called on the National Executive Committee of the NBA to “prescribe and enforce sanctions for members who address newsmen while fully robed and make comments on cases that are ongoing in court.”
He added, “The Educational Committee of the National Judicial Institute should include in its curriculum, issues that would sensitise judicial officers to the need to be cautious in having improper and private communication with counsel appearing before them.”
He also advocated the need to continuously train judges and lawyers in the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism “as a means of speedy dispensation of justice, and more importantly, boosting investors’ confidence in our economy.”
He also promised that as the 2019 general elections approaches, “The judiciary will, in determining electoral disputes, continue to play the role of an independent and dispassionate arbiter without fear or favour, affection or ill will.”
He also advocated that the Bar must partner key stakeholders to play the critical role of sensitisation and voter education “to ensure that eligible members of the public are properly enlightened on the need to participate in the process and conduct themselves lawfully.”
He said, “Such peaceful and largely accepted electoral outcome will engender peace and stability in the polity and ensure sustainable, innovative developments.
“It goes without saying that a free and fair election will generate less acrimony, tension and litigation.”
COTRIMCO and fight against corruption
The CJN also lauded the Corruption Cases Trial Monitoring Committee which he set up last year in his capacity as the Chairman of the NJC.
The Justice Suleiman Galadima-led COTRIMCO was set up to monitor corruption cases in various courts across the country in line with the CJN’s directive to all heads of courts to designate special courts in their various jurisdictions for the speedy trial of corruption cases.
The CJN said at the end of the last legal year, a total of 1,499 such cases were identified.
“Out of this number, a total of 345 judgments were delivered, 14 cases reserved for judgment and 12 cases struck out.
“There are 1,139 of such cases pending in various courts across the country.
“This is a remarkable achievement and a testament to the resolve of the judiciary to fight corruption in our nation.”
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