Razaq Bamidele
The Nigeria Voters Assembly (VOTAS) has expressed displeasure over delayed cases at the Supreme Court and called on the Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) to facilitate speedy dispensation of Justice at the Apex Court in the land.
The group, which is a legislative advocacy and Principal human rights on Justice system has called on the Supreme Court to rejig its systems to set up new fair and speedy hearing processes to dispense with a long list of cases in their registry within a reasonable time as a strong pillar of justice in Nigeria.
The organisation, in a statement from its President, Comrade Moshood Erubami, said a lot of litigants who seek justice from the court as the last hope are currently being frustrated due to stagnancy of judicial performance, unaccountability and inefficiency which had on occasions caused redress through self-help and anarchy among Litigants.
“Lot of cases are stalked in the archives of the Supreme Court which are not being given speedy attention as is being the case in election cases, notwithstanding the recent increase in the number of the Supreme Court Justices,” the group lamented in the statement from Erubami, reminding that, “Justice delayed is Justice denied.”
Erubami reminded that, “given that the supreme court by the 1999 Constitution is granted both original and appellate jurisdictions as the last ‘Bus Stop’ for all appeals in Nigeria, and given that once it delivers its judgement in any cases, it brings about finality to further litigations on the particular case, most Nigerians are looking forward to the Court to speedily dispense justice in the cases before it, fairly and justly to reduce drastically the years of delays being suffered on several cases.
The group condemned the slow dispensation of cases before the supreme court justices querying why cases apart from election litigations attract the speedy attention of the supreme Court justices while the other cases are given less attention as less priority cases which should spend multiple decades unattended to!
The VOTAS described as unacceptable and unjustifiable, the delayed being experienced in the final determination of pending cases in the Supreme Court, given that the Justices that were recommended, adopted and finally approved were found to have demonstrated sufficient knowledge of the law and a firm grasp of issues relating to law and other contemporary legal and jurisprudential issues.
The group further stated that, though, the additional eight justices approved for the Supreme court recently might be ideal, it is still grossly inadequate, a far cry from the number that could deal with the outstanding deluge of untreated cases lying fallow at the supreme court without knowing when the cases will be given attention unlike the election litigations.
“There are criminal and land cases that have been stalked in the Supreme Court for decades in which the plaintiffs and defendant lawyers have passed on to glory as a result of which they have to be replaced and replaced over times !
“The slow treatment of waiting cases, represented the very painful factors that have been delaying cases and hence denying justice to Nigerians as many of the cases have been in the registry of the court for many years, with the least not less than 10 years and still not attended to and thereby denying the Litigants the taste of justice talk less of experiencing its sweetness!” the VOTAS regretted.
The organisation therefore suggested as alternative judicial masterstroke, a new Judicial process that will assume the duty of a stop gap judicial institution through which cases found to be of high priority are regularly sent to the supreme court for speedy dispensation which will cause justice to be seen as being done.
The Assembly of Voters Assembly called on the Federal Government to create a conducive environment for Justices to take advantage of technology, current innovations in the law and practice in the course of delivering judgements.
Finally, the Group advised that the Judiciary at all levels of its structures should endeavour to raise the bar of adjudication beyond politics to achieve social justice in the Country, recommending that Supreme Court judges must accordingly adhere to the good ideals of delivering justice to make positive difference, while they are in offices so that history will remember them kindly after they are gone.