Workload high in FCT High Court despite Buhari’s appointments
Stakeholders say the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint only 11 out of 33 judges approved by the National Judicial Council (NJC) for the Federal Capital Territory High Court has failed to ease off the congestion in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.
Number of judges
President Buhari on July 7, 2020, forwarded to the Senate the names of 11 candidates for appointment as judges of the FCT High Court. They are Abubakar Husseini Musa (Adamawa); Edward Okpe (Benue); Babashani Abubakar (Borno); Emuesiri M. Francis (Delta); Jude Ogho (Delta); Josephine Enobi (Edo); Christopher Opeyemi Oba (Ekiti); Mohammed Idris (Kano); Hassan Maryam Aliyu (Kebbi); Fashola Akeem Adebowale (Lagos); and Hamza Muazu (Niger).
There are about 44 courts in the FCT with 43 judges following the retirement of the Chief Judge, Justice Ishaq Bello in January. If the newly appointed 11 judges are added to the existing 43, the court will now have 54 judges with the need for expansion of the court infrastructure.
The judges of the courts now are: Salisu Garba, Hussein Baba Yusuf, Olasumbo Goodluck, Adebukola Banjoko, Sylvanus Oriji, Maryanne Anenih, Peter Kekemeke, M.A. Nasir, C.O. Agbaza, O.A. Musa, Danlami Senchi, Olusegun Adeniyi, C.N. Oji, Suleiman Belgore, A.I. Kutigi, Peter Affen, Angela Otaluka and A.B. Mohammed.
Others are: A.S. Adepoju, U.A. Musale, Yusuf Halilu, B. Kawu, K.N. Ogbonnaya, A.O. Ebong, M.B. Idris, B. Mohammed, M. Osho-Adebiyi, V.S. Garba, B. Hassan, A.I. Akobi, S.U. Bature, A. Akanbi-Yusuf, A.H. Musa, E. Okpe, B. Abubakar, F.E. Messiri, J.O. Onwuegbuzie, O.J. Noble, C.O. Oba, M.S. Idris, H.M. Aliyu, A.A. Fashola, and H. Mu’azu.
Also, with the additional 40 magistrates appointed by Justice Bello in December 2020 before his retirement, there are now 88 magistrates in the FCT.
But lawyers, litigants and the court administration maintain that the numbers are not enough in the country’s federal capital territory, which continues to struggle with congestion and delays in dispensation of justice.
Court expansion projects
The FCT Administration has in recent years made budgetary provisions for expansion of courtrooms by building new courts, especially high courts and magistrate courts in satellite towns of the FCT to reduce the pressure on judges and quicken justice administration.
Also, many of the projects, which include new judges’ quarters, are yet to be completed, but observers say that should not be an excuse not to appoint more judges.
The court received the sum of N6.8 billion votes for its expenditure in 2016, N1.4 billion for capital projects. The figure has since been increased in the subsequent years.
As a result, the high court has built new divisions in Nyanya, Gwagwalada, Bwari and Kwali with a new Sharia Court also in Gwagwalada, to accommodate more judges and bring justice closer to people in the satellite towns of the FCT.
The workload in the high court can be seen from the 2018/2019 legal year with 30,586 cases filed out of which 13,961 cases were concluded. The magistrate courts received 21,108 cases out of which 11,969 were decided while the area courts received 16,261 cases out of which 9,906 were disposed of.
FCT judges not enough – Lawyers
Deji Ekemgba Esq, who went to court to challenge President Buhari’s decision to appoint only 11 out of the 33 judges approved by the NJC and for sending same to the Senate in breach of Section 256(2) of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, said it was a good move by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad to approve 33 judges for the FCT High Court because of the cosmopolitan nature of Abuja.
“It is absurd that the president decided to send only 11 names out of the 33 painstakingly and thoroughly screened/ interviewed and recommended by the NJC to the president since April,” he said.
“If you file a land matter in Abuja, it takes you four, five years to get to judgement. And if you go to court, judges are having like 20, 30 cases on their cause list a day. Now, a judge that would handle 30 something cases, the level of concentration would not be the same. Maybe the first two, three matters, he would devote his attention and every other matter, he would adjourn because he is already tired,” he said.
He said justice delivery is better in Lagos compared to the FCT because there are more judges in Lagos than in the FCT.
For his part, Aliemeke Ewere Esq criticized the mode of the recent appointment of the few FCT high court judges claiming the candidates were mainly brought in by influential people in the country.
“When every important person nominates a candidate for appointment as a judge, what type of justice do you expect to get? It would no longer be justice according to the law,” he said
A Lawyer, Dr Abdul Mohammed Rafindadi (SAN) said the president must send the names of the remaining judges’ nominees for appointment because he did not give any specific reason for dropping the names.
Also, Dr Chudi Chukwuani, a contractor, who has battled for many years in the courts to recover his funds, said the caseload is too much on the judges which has killed justice delivery in the FCT.
“Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people. Out of that, what do you expect to be the fate of civil and criminal disputes in a society with 200 million people?
“If the entire cases filed in court is one per cent of the country’s population, that comes to two million cases filed nationwide every year. Now, what percentage do you think would come to the federal capital especially?
“You find out that most people believe that they won’t get justice in their respective states, so most of the disputes, especially the political ones, everybody brings his to FCT High Court. So, FCT High Court is now inundated with so many cases because of the peculiarities, population, growth and economic development of our society.
“Some of the judges are handling about 1,000 cases. How can a judge be handling 1,000 cases? What do you want him to do, kill himself? The consequence is that the judges would not give justice because they won’t have time to analyse cases.
“We need more courts and judges in the FCT to at least 250 judges because the population is exploding.”
Attitudinal change, tech can expedite justice delivery
But human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said the problem of delay in justice delivery is not due to the appointment of judges, maintaining that 43 judges were enough for the FCT High Court since there are also other federal courts in the city.
“Many of them (newly appointed judges in the FCT), just like the magistrates the former chief judge appointed, have no offices, no courts. It is not the number because 43 is enough for the FCT. There is no need appointing judges and asking them courtrooms.
“It is about building infrastructure and to move with the time and enable our judges to acquire the necessary tools. I can tell you since July last year, I have been practising in the ECOWAS but I have never been there physically but by virtual means. I gave evidence in a case in Switzerland two months ago while I sat down in Lagos,” he said.
He called for a change of rules that makes all cases from customary or magistrate courts to get to the Supreme Court, for appeals to register arbitral awards from arbitration panels made up of erudite judges and lawyers as members.
In the same vein, Abdullahi Ibrahim Esq said although the low number of judges and courts affect the speedy delivery of judgement, there is need to improve the rules of the court and the attitude of lawyers who always raised frivolous reasons to seek adjournments.
“Like the rules in the National Industrial Court where the judges have all the processes before them, it can decide to do away with calling witnesses; it can rely on all the documents and deliver its judgement. If we adopt that procedure, we can see cases decided in three months or six months. It is not just about the addition of courts, it also involves adjusting the rules, and the lawyers participating and to understand that there is need for cases to finish in time,” he said.
The NJC’s officials could not be reached to respond to the appointment of judges and budget of the FCT High Court, but the Chief Registrar of the Court, Muhammad Adamu reiterated that the court needs more judges and structure.
“For speedier dispensation of justice, we need more hands. This problem is not only affecting the high court, even in the magistrate courts they are handling so many cases,” he said.
“People ask us, do you have the courts available, and we answer that if we don’t have, we won’t even ask because the criteria for the NJC to accept your application for increase of judges, you must show the courts on ground and their residential quarters.”
to
share