A FORMER President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), has described the Lagos State Judiciary as the busiest in Africa, apart from South Africa’s.
His comment came on the heels of Monday’s statement by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode that the state has Nigeria’s busiest and foremost judicial system.
Olanipekun said the statistics showed that the volume of cases filed in Lagos courts were unmatched by any African judicial system, except, perhaps, that of South Africa.
The legal liminary spoke yesterday while delivering his keynote address, titled: Promoting a Pace-setting and Productive Judiciary in Lagos State, at a Bar and Bench forum marking the state’s new legal year.
The eminent lawyer called for an urgent recruitment of more hands for the state’s Judiciary, particularly on the High Court Bench, to cater for the judicial challenges facing it.
According to him, between 2015 and October 4, this year, 3,548 civil and criminal cases were filed at the Lagos State High Court, while the Federal High Court in Abuja had 3,963 cases within the same period.
Yet, he said the Federal High Court had about 100 judges as against 56 in Lagos.
Olanipekun, who also identified the need to stop delay in the swearing-in of Lagos Chief Judge, advised the State Judicial Service Commission (SJSC) to rise to the task.
He said: “I must not be mistaken as blaming the Lagos State Chief Executive for any interregnum in the appointment of a substantive Chief Judge of Lagos in succession to the Justice Funmilayo Atilade, who retired upon the attainment of the constitutional mandatory retirement age of 65 years on September 24, 2017.
“The fact remains that the SJSC ought to have anticipated that the immediate past Chief Judge would retire on a particular day and should have initiated the process of appointing a successor pretty early enough, to take care of submission of the name/names to the NJC, who in turn would meet to interview the nominated candidates for consequent recommendation to the governor for appointment.”
Lagos State Acting Chief Judge, Justice Opeyemi Oke, who chaired the event, said part of the reforms of her administration was that lawyers would serve as court registrars.
Justice Oke said 28 legal practitioners were undergoing training for that purpose.
She said the bad eggs tarnishing the Judiciary’s image will be flushed out of the system.
The CJ added that a committee, headed by Justice Kazeem Alogba, had been set up to prepare the 2018 rules of court.
