A/Court clears backlog, delivers 232 judgements in 2 weeks

The Court of Appeal has cleared the backlog of pending appeals before it with the delivery of 232 judgements across its various divisions within two weeks, Media Officer of the Court, Sa’adatu Musa Kachalla, has said.

Kachalla said the appellate court was able to attain this level due to the setting up of five taskforces by the President of the Court, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, to speed up the adjudication and clearance of backlog of pending appeals before the court.

She said the taskforces were given two weeks each to move round to five busier divisions and preside over pending appeals and ensure the appeals were disposed of expeditiously.

A letter signed by Justice Bulkachuwa identified the taskforces to comprise Justices from Makurdi, Ilorin, Ekiti, Sokoto and Yola divisions drafted in to reduce the workload in Lagos, Benin, Enugu, Abuja and Port Harcourt divisions.

The taskforce from Makurdi drafted to the Lagos division delivered 85 judgments, while the taskforce from Ilorin drafted to the Benin division delivered 57 judgments.

The figures further reveal the Ekiti taskforce which sat in Enugu division delivered 38 judgments, and the Sokoto taskforce which sat in Abuja division delivered 31 judgments, while the Yola taskforce which sat in Port Harcourt division were able to adjudicate on 21 pending appeals.

The media officer also said the appellate court will proceed on its annual vacation on July 17 to resume on September 11, 2017.