Access to Justice faults timing of judges’ conferences

Access to Justice (A2J), a non-profit organisation, has urged the National Judicial Institute (NIJ), the organiser of judges’ conferences as well as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to review the timing of the conferences in the interest of the timely administration of justice in the country.

Dr. Adenike Aiyedun, in a statement on behalf of A2J, noted that from Monday, November 20 to Friday, November 24, 2017, Nigerian judges had their bi-annual Judges Conference in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

One of the numerous lawyers whose cases were fixed during the conference had to travel from his base in Ibadan to Kano where his case was listed only to be informed that the court was not sitting due to the Judges’ Conference.

He posted online how the journey to Kano cost him N120,000 which would have been saved with only a N5 text message.

These conferences, have become institutionalised, and bring together a cross-section of superior court judges and Justices of Appellate courts in a week-long programme of activities.

A2J said it was concerned with the consequences and effect of judges and justices of Court of Appeal being away from their benches during a period when courts should normally be sitting.

“Our representatives visited some courts (the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court, the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, and the Lagos State High Courts) and observed that in the courts presided by judges/justices attending the conference, there were cases in the courts’ dockets slated for hearing in the week.

“The obvious consequence of the absence of the judges/justices from courts is that the cases scheduled for the week would necessarily suffer ‘no-show’ adjournments,” the group said.