Unless something is done fast to alleviate their plight, judges at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos may soon be compelled to lay aside their robe of honour while delivering judgment due to harsh working conditions.
The level of infrastructure decay at the court is alarming and could forestall court hearings and proceedings if no proactive measure is taken now.
This sad development persists despite intervention by the Babatunde Fashola administration in Lagos in September 2009, which saw the establishment of an Ikeja division of the court. Although the intervention reduced pressure on infrastructure at the court, which was established as Revenue Court in 1973, the present pitiable state leaves nothing to be desired.
Despite the responsibility sharing arrangement with the Ikeja division, the Ikoyi facility appears to have outlived its usefulness as a modern justice delivering house, BDSUNDAY investigation reveals.
The court, located at No. 24, Oyinkan Abayomi Drive, was built when Nigeria’s population was 60 million. It is now living on past glory.
While the court looks decent from the outside, its courtrooms where legal proceedings take place are shabby. Some of the courtrooms inspected by our reporter cannot accommodate more than 10 individuals, including lawyers, the accused and the defendant, at a sitting.
In a courtroom at the right wing (upstairs), where lawyers and the clients (nine in number) were seated and waiting for the arrival of the judge, members of the legal team who came late stood confused by the door looking for available space to sit. They left when it became obvious there was no space to accommodate them.
Although there are relics of the past glory of the courtrooms which tend to minimise the eyesore, the atmosphere can still be likened to old wine in new bottle as the witness boxes are tightly situated at both sides of the clerk’s desk and closed in by the judge’s seat.
While the courtrooms are air-conditioned, the level of arctic mood it produced at the time of visit (it was a rainy morning) points to the fact that justice delivery time during heat seasons may be equal to sweat time for both the judges and everyone under the sound of their voices with the twin old fan labouring to have their impact felt. Some of the light fittings were also not working, leaving some sections darker than others.
Another eyesore in the courtrooms was the tonnes of file folders occupying a larger part of both the clerk’s desk and that of the judge. Although the volumes of the files varied from courtroom to courtroom and are in different stages of upward progress towards the ceiling, the first impression is that this is a pre-independence primary school classroom or a local magistrate court.
Ikeja division
The courtrooms at the Ikeja division of the FHC, located at No. 5, Ashabi Cole Street, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, is far conducive for legal proceedings, with the facility still looking relatively new, although signs of lack of maintenance are showing gradually. These include weeds on the edges of the building and surroundings.
The Ikeja division is also more spacious than its Ikoyi counterpart. Although files were also seen on the desks of clerks and judges, their clumsiness is not as alarming yet.
The division was opened officially on September 1, 2009, with a special court session presided over by Justice Mustapha, who was the then Chief Judge of the state, and other notable judges, especially Justice Inumidun Akande.
Igbosere Magistrate Court
Igbosere Magistrate Court, a three floor edifice, stands tall among the facilities inspected. Although none of the courtrooms was in session at the time of visit, a walk around the facility revealed a sharp departure from what is obtainable at the Ikoyi Federal Court in terms of space, environment and modernity.
From the transparent glasses, the few neatly arranged files on the clerk’s desk and computer desktop on the judge’s desk are easily seen. The seating arrangement is also more orderly and spacious. Additionally, each floor at the gallery has modern and sizable flip back chairs for guests to sit.
Few of the negative observations are that the entire floors were not thoroughly swept, despite the appropriate positioning of waste bins; and the staircase reserved for the Judges was dark and lacked air.
And again, the Igbosere Magistrate Court with 22 courtrooms and chambers built in 2010 in honour of the late Justice J.I.C Taylor, was another landslide achievement by the Fashola led administration in the state.
In the state system, magistrate courts are courts of first instance. Larger percent of the cases that reach the High and Appeal courts originate from the magistrate courts.
Offences such as stealing or theft, house breaking or burglary, road traffic offences, and tenancy matters, to name a few are handled at the magistrate courts. Over 80 percent of criminal cases end up at the magistrates courts. Statistics show that Lagos State magistrates have up to 1000 cases in their docket.
According to a survey released by the Cleen Foundation, a non-partisan public policy think tank, which found that Lagos was still a hotbed for criminals, the state ranked as one of the states with the highest crime rates in the country, with about 67 percent of its residents fearing of becoming victims of crimes, while 23 percent claim to have experienced crime in the last one year.
The Lagos High Court
Up to the year 2001, the High Court of Lagos State sat as one undifferentiated division. In April 2001, Justice Christopher Olatunde Segun, the then Chief Judge, issued Practice Directions No PD/ II /C.1/LS No 1 of 2001 and thereby created Ikeja, Lagos Island, Badagry and Ikorodu specialized divisions, effective from May 1, 2001. But only the Igbosere and the Ikeja divisions were captured in this report.
At the Igbosere division, legal activities are very high, due to the numbers of lawyers and their clients moving about in the premises, unlike the magistrate court with fewer activities. Although legal proceedings were not in session when the facility was visited, a tour round the buildings revealed that some courtrooms are better equipped than others.
Courtrooms of the new building are appreciably furnished with modern chairs, desks, air-conditioners and light fittings. But the efficiency of the appliances could not be ascertained, since there was no power supply at the time of visit. Few files were also seen on desks of the courtrooms.
But the same story cannot be told of the buildings behind it and the right wing extension, which are far older. While the Judges’ chambers upstairs of both extensions which linked each other had Italian marbles on its floor, with dazzling warm white light that creates a three star like ambiance, the courtrooms on the grand floor were somewhat pathetic. With the doors, visitors come through to the courtrooms looking completely awful, as well, doors reserved for the exclusive passage of the Judges are difficult to open unless with further pressure on them.
Two officials who saw the struggle came quickly to the rescue, but warned that it was exclusive for the judge. Although spacious, there was also no modern equipment in this section.
Although, the Lagos State judicial authority states on its website that it is committed to ensuring disputes are resolved fairly, timely, transparently and economically by leveraging enabling technology with inherent seamless integration of the court processes, structures and administration; and claim that it provide automated case processing, payments and communication through online court system to make it easy for various parties to a case to have timely access to pertinent case-related information, files are still hugely arranged on desks and counters of these courtrooms.
But the worst parts of the entire facility were the back extension (upstairs) and the wing (second floor) where the office of one Justice Adesanya is located. While the former appears abandoned to junior staffers like cleaners, the staircase passage leading to the latter was dark, had broken ceiling that leaks water, had little room attachment which was extremely filthy, office space where dirty and torn chairs, cartons and mantras were kept, and an unpleasant balcony, that initially appears to be leading to more eyesore. It was only a female lady that was seated on the executive chair in the appreciably decent wide office.
The Appeal of Court of Nigeria
Although the Court of Appeal building, Igbosere, Lagos Island, was standing clamorously like a modern banking edifice, access could not be gained into the facility when it was visited. Entrance to the building was locked. The men securing the edifice said the court was not in session because the judges are on vacation.
The Lagos High Court, Ikeja
As official edifice befitting number four citizen of the state (the Chief Judge), the High Court of Lagos State, located at Oba Akinjobi Road, GRA, Ikeja, was the best in terms of space, clean environment and modernity among the courts inspected.
Although legal proceedings were not in session at the time of visit, the courtrooms are tastily furnished with state of the art facility like standard serene conference rooms and cool public address system.
Several legal practitioners are of the view that lack of judicial independence and accountability stem from factors including: undue influence from the executive and legislative branch of government, low remuneration and poor condition of service, and the administrative nature of the roles of judges that gives far reaching discretionary powers but weak monitoring of the execution of those powers. Other factors are; lack of transparency and the absence of computerised, comprehensive and regularly updated database and backlog of cases that further worsen the effects of corruption in the judiciary.
NATHANIEL AKHIGBE
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