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Rumble over this year’s judicial vacation

There are concerns among lawyers and the Nigerian public that the 2021 annual vacation of the judiciary in Nigeria will adversely affect justice delivery in…

There are concerns among lawyers and the Nigerian public that the 2021 annual vacation of the judiciary in Nigeria will adversely affect justice delivery in the country.

Initial rumour about the proposed vacation was greeted with opposition by a large section of lawyers worried that the vacation for this year would be unnecessary and would eat into valuable judicial time already reeling from the long strike embarked upon by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).

The period of the JUSUN strike was reported to have witnessed high rate of extortion and extra-judicial killings in parts of the country.

The Nigerian Correctional Service has at least 65,688 inmates, majority of them awaiting trial. With the increasing spate of insecurity, several law enforcement agencies have filled up their detention facilities.

In 2020, the National Judicial Council (NJC) said it had 155,757 cases, although it is reported that courts across the federation have thousands of cases before them.

This is despite that restorative criminal justice and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) practices are not yet mainstreamed in Nigeria like in other countries.

Beside the industrial action embarked upon by JUSUN from April 6 to June 9, 2021, to press home their demand for financial autonomy for the judiciary arm of government in the states, there was also the #EndSARS protest between October and November, 2020, which dealt a huge blow on the judiciary as the courts were attacked, even as several states imposed curfews to curtail the crisis.

Judicial activities in 2020 were seriously marred by the COVID-19 pandemic which forced nationwide lockdowns for almost four months.

To address the gap in justice delivery due to absence of technology, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, on May 7, approved virtual sittings by the courts nationwide.

He said platforms such as MS366, Zoom, Google Meeting and other such applications would be used for hearing and judgment delivery.

Justice Muhammad said, “Physical sittings by courts in courtrooms should be avoided as much as possible during the COVID-19 period. Such physical court sittings must be limited only to time-bound, extremely urgent and essential matters that may not be heard by the court remotely or virtually.”

It was, therefore, shocking when on July 12, the Federal High Court announced the commencement of the 2021 annual vacation from July 26 to September 17, 2021.

In a statement, the Chief Judge of the court, Justice John Tsoho, said the vacation was in line with the rules and regulations of the court.

He said, “Pursuant to the provisions of Order 46, Rule 4(d) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, the Federal High Court will proceed on its annual vacation for the year 2021 from Monday, the 26th day of July 2021 to Friday, the 17th day of September, 2021.

“In order to enable honourable judges the opportunity to enjoy their well-deserved rest and to prepare for the challenges of the New Legal Year, only the core judicial divisions will, as usual, remain functional throughout the vacation.

“The litigating public will be at liberty to approach only the under-listed functional courts located nearest to them at Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt.”

The chief judge further said during the vacation only cases of extreme urgency such as arrest of ships and fundamental rights enforcement suits were to be entertained.

The judge named the following judges to preside during the two-month vacation: Justices Ahmed Ramat Mohammad and Obiora Egwuatu in Abuja; Justices I.N. Oweibo and Tijjani Ringim in Lagos; and Justices S. D. Pam and A. T. Mohammad in Port Harcourt.

Senior lawyers such as Sebastine Hon (SAN), Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), Bayo Akinlade and Onyekachi Ubani have called on the judiciary not to proceed on the vacation this year.

Hon called on the judiciary to consider the plight of hapless litigants and consider it a patriotic sacrifice and use that period to cover lost ground.

On his part, Ayorinde, in a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria dated June 15, 2021, and copied to the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, President of the National Industrial Court, Justice Benedict Kanyip, and other heads of courts, pleaded that they should consider the plight of several detainees and awaiting trial inmates in correctional centres nationwide.

He said, “My lord, such a direction will no doubt portray the judiciary as most responsive institution and the third arm of government that is the last hope of the common man. Such a direction will also definitely and substantially clear most of the backlog of cases that have suffered delays in our courts thereby making courts ‘fit for the purpose’ again.”

Speaking also, Akinlade, who is the immediate past Chairman of NBA, Ikorodu branch, said the judges should go on their annual vacation for general public good. He said the magistrates did not go on vacation, although fewer lawyers practiced there.

Ubani, a former Second Vice President of NBA and Chairman of the Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL), said the judiciary was already on some vacation during the JUSUN two-month strike.

Ubani said, “I believe this is necessary in order for them to attend to all the cases which have been piling up. The administration of justice in Nigeria is very slow and the ongoing strike is worsening the situation.”

In a similar vein, the convener of Access to Justice (A2J), Joseph Otteh, said it was insensitive for courts across the country to embark on annual vacation since 2020 when several cases were affected by the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown and had remained unattended to.

However, Prof Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN) on his part, called on the judiciary to stagger this year’s planned vacation and not to call it off entirely.

Prof Akinseye-George said, “We recommend that only 50 per cent of the courts should proceed on the usual annual vacation this July while the remaining 50 per cent should remain at work and only proceed on vacation when the first 50 per cent would have returned to work.

“This is because we cannot afford to keep the justice system in limbo as we did for two months during the JUSUN strike so that people don’t begin to take the laws into their hands.”

He harped on the need to ensure the welfare of judges because of the demanding nature of their work.

 

Annual vacation is statutory – NBA

Reacting, the spokesperson of NBA, Dr Rapuluchukwu Nduka, said the position of the Olumide Akpata-led association was that annual vacation for judges was statutory but would seek for means the CJN and heads of courts could abridge the time for litigants and lawyers.

He said, “We hope that most of the judges on vacation should find a way to make up for lost grounds. For the states that agreed to abridge the time; that is beautiful; for states that have not bridged the time, we wouldn’t cry for that. The bottom line is that every state provides for vacation courts and for things that are time-bound people can approach the vacation courts.”

 

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