The Chief Judge (CJ) of Yobe State, Justice Gumna Kashim Kaigama, has said that the state’s high court has disposed of 623 cases both at first instance and appellate jurisdiction in the 2023/2024 legal year.
Justice Kaigama disclosed this at the 2023/2024 legal year and valedictory session in honour of four judges, Justices Baba Ba’aba, Baba Saje Gujba, G M Nabaruma and Ali Garba, at the Yobe State High Court Complex in Damaturu
He said the Sharia Court of Appeal, which was not a Court of First Instance, disposed of 102 cases on appeal, explaining that the feats were achieved despite all the challenges they had in the dispensation of justice.
He further said, “I must also thank our magistrates and sharia alkalai who handle the bulk of cases at the grassroots, thereby making litigation easier for the common man, having the courts at his doorsteps. We can provide accommodation to some magistrates and alkalai in the local governments of the state for that purpose.’’
He appealed to the federal government to commission and put to use the new correctional facility in Damaturu and complete the abandoned project in Gashua.
He noted that, “All criminal cases on trial before the high and magistrates’ courts have the same problem of transporting the accused who are not on bail to Potiskum.”