At the beginning of the year, expectations that the disruptions of the 2019/2020 legal year due to the COVID-19 pandemic would go away for the judiciary to return to a new normal. But that was dashed by the second wave of the pandemic which ushered in the mixture of shocks, drawbacks and digitization success story of 2021.
The second wave of pandemic stalled cases
By the time many courts resumed in January, the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had begun ravaging different countries of the world including Nigeria.
Fears of the health status of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, in December 2020 was not resolved until his resumption in January when he was reported to have returned from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Numerous court cases were adjourned over the pandemic. For instance, the trial of former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) on 14-count charges of alleged money laundering was on January 11 stalled after his counsel, Kanu Agabi (SAN) informed the court that he was stranded in the UAE over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Similarly, some cases in Lagos courts, including the Osborne Estate case against Lagos State Government, were stalled over COVID-19 protocols, as courts chose to run skeletal services.
JUSUN’s prolonged strike crippled courts
While the judiciary was still reeling under the effects of the second wave of the pandemic and the cautionary measures being observed, the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) on April 1 announced its intention to embark on an indefinite strike over the non-implementation of the constitutional provision for judicial financial autonomy in states.
The union said the new move was to enforce Executive Order 10 signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on May 5, 2020.
Efforts made by various stakeholders to intervene in the matter proved abortive as the union on April 6 proceeded on the strike, despite the warning by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata, that the strike action and its timing just after the COVID-19 lockdown of courts in 2020, would have “devastating consequences for justice administration in the country.”
The strike stalled thousands of civil and criminal cases, including those involving awaiting trial inmates, and led to allegations of extra-judicial killings in some states.
The union suspended the strike on June 9 following a fresh agreement with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and the intervention of prominent traditional rulers, the CJN and other stakeholders.
Although the NGF had in an objection to the Order 10 filed an originating summons before the Supreme Court challenging the powers of the president to compel states to pay funds standing to the credit of states judiciary directly, maintaining that the 36 states have expended funds for capital and recurrent expenditures of the high courts and customary courts of appeals since May 1999 to January 2020.
Conflicting rulings in election disputes
The judiciary was upset by so many election disputes from which conflicting rulings were delivered.
The issue of the disputed national chairmanship of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) formerly led by Uche Secondus attracted the most recent pronouncements in high courts of Rivers and Kebbi states.
On August 24, Justice Okogbule Gbasam of the Rivers State High Court in Degema in an ex parte application by some aggrieved PDP members restrained Secondus from parading himself as PDP chairman pending the determination of the main suit.
The order was on August 26 invalidated by a Kebbi State High Court in Birnin Kebbi which issued an order of interim injunction reinstating the embattled chairman pending the determination of the suit number KB/HC/M.171/2021.
Justice Nusirate Umar ruled that “An order of this honourable court granting leave to the first respondent (Secondus) to continue exercising all the constitutional powers of the office of Chairman of PDP (second defendant) as enshrined in both 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended and the Peoples Democratic Party’s constitution pending the hearing and final determination of applicant’s motion on notice.”
The suit was filed by three concerned members of the party – Yahaya Usman, Abubakar Mohammed and Bashar Suleiman – through their counsel, Ibrahim Jibrul Esq.
While that was pending, another Cross River State High Court presided by Justice Edem Kooffreh granted an interim order restraining Secondus from resuming office as PDP chairman.
Similar forum shopping and conflicting judgments increased during election cycles with the Anambra State governorship elections primaries.
Following these conflicting rulings by courts of coordinate jurisdiction, the National Judicial Council (NJC) on December 16, acting on the recommendation of a disciplinary committee set up on September 6, barred three judges from promotion to higher bench for a period between two to five years.
They are Justice Okogbule Gbasam of Rivers State High Court, Justice Nusirate Umar of the High Court of Kebbi State and Justice Edem Ita Kooffreh of Cross River State High Court.
The affected judges were issued with warning letters to be circumspect for the future, while the NJC placed Justice Kooffreh on its watch-list for two years.
Installation of electronic facilities in prisons and high courts
Justice delivery in the country received a major boost on December 6 when the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), launched virtual court facilities for the Nigerian Correctional Centres in Kuje, FCT.
Malami said the project, which will be replicated nationwide, is to advance the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) and ensure the speedy determination of cases by way of eliminating delays and displacement of denial of justice which will further support the federal government’s policy of decongestion of correctional centres across the country.
The facility, which would require inmates to take their court cases electronically from custody, will save the correctional centres the logistics of moving inmates to and from courts.
The installation of the electronic court facilities became even more urgent as the COVID-19 pandemic caused a backlog of cases in courts and several inmates’ cases were not called, resulting in overcrowding in correctional centres.
The project of fitting the courts with digital facilities was also carried out at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The Executive Secretary of the NJC, Gambo Saleh, said the facility has been designed with the best noise filter, audio and video software with firewall security against unauthorized access.
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