Jurists, senior lawyers lament huge cases backlogs in court

Eminent jurists and senior lawyers have lamented the huge backlog of cases pending before the courts in the country, just as the Chief Judge of High Court of Federal Capital Territory (FHC), Justice Ishaq Bello, said on Monday that a total of 13, 961 cases was disposed in the 2018/2019 legal year.

He however, said that the total caseload in 2018/2019 legal year stood at 30, 582 made up of 16, 396 fresh cases filed during the year and 14, 186 cases that were carried over from the 2017/2018 legal year.

Though, the percentage of the court performance in relation to the case load were not mentioned, the court still has more than 50 per cent of the cases unattended to.

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Justice Bello, who made this disclosure at the commencement of 2019/2020 new legal year, stressed that “in total, 13, 961 cases were disposed; this is an indication of our ever increasing case load.

“From the statistics available, on the average, a court has about 850 cases in its docket and about 387 cases decided per judge.”

Bello further disclosed that at the magistracy, 11, 969 cases were disposed out of 21, 108 cases, adding that the complement of judges and magistrates need to be augmented to decongest the huge workload.

The chief judge of the FCT High Court also said that from the Sharia Court of Appeal, 223 cases were registered and 206 disposed a 92 per cent record with 17 cases pending.

According to him, total cases at the area courts were 9, 682 and 6, 579 carried over from 2017/2018 legal year, bringing the overall caseload to 16, 261, with 9, 906 disposed.

He added that at the customary court of appeal 664 cases were filed out of which 566 were disposed, while at the customary court 1,180 cases were recorded out of which 1, 115 were disposed.

Lamenting the huge backlog of cases before the court, the Body of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Abuja branch, Chief Chris Uche, (SAN) stressed the need for the court to employ more judges.

He also said that the independence of the judiciary in the country is necessary and assured that the body would continue to lend its voice to the independence of the judiciary as an indispensable component of the rule of law.

Uche said that, there is no gainsaying that the judiciary in Nigeria is undergoing very trying times, adding that the general feeling is that the judiciary is under a siege.

“We attended the International Bar Association conference in Seoul and our major takeaway was the showcase symposium on the rule of law which had such huge message for Nigeria.

“The focus was on the assault by some governments around the world on the rule of law by attacks on the independence of the judiciary and of the legal profession,” he said.

On his part, the President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN), whose address was delivered by Mr, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), said the partnership between the bench and the bar should not be stained by external forces.

According to him, the members of the bar and bench are from the same parents.

The bench he noted “has been under trial from the media, security agencies and the public who do not even understand the modus operandi of the bench. The bench has no voice to defend itself; therefore, the bar should stand in defence of the bench.”