Dignitaries and stakeholders thronged Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, to inaugurate a multi-million naira four-storey courthouse donated to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) by the Rivers State Government. Eric Ikhilae reports.
Dignitaries and major stakeholders in the Judiciary recently gathered in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, to inaugurate the new National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) division in the state.
It was built and donated to the court by the Rivers State Government.
Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, Court of Appeal President Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, NICN President Justice Babatunde Adejumo, and Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike were among the dignitaries.
Taraba State Governor Dairius Isiaku, Rivers State’s Chief Judge Justice Adama Iyayi-Lamikanra, and former Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) President O. C. J. Okocha (SAN) were also present.
The occasion was an opportunity to reflect on the state of the Judiciary. Chief Justice Onnoghen, Justice Iyayi-Lamikanra, Wike and Okocha decried increasing cases of attacks on the courts in state as well as disregard of court decisions by government agencies and officials across the country.
The CJN, particularly, stressed the importance of an independent and virile Judiciary in the sustenance of democracy.
Chief Justice Onnoghen noted that no society, inhabited by individuals with varied orientation and beliefs, is immune to disagreements and challenges.
He, however, asserted: “The solution to our numerous problems lies in adherence to the principle of rule of law. If we do that, for four years consistently, you will see that things will fall back into places.”
Chief Justice Onnoghen, who also stressed the need for everyone to abide by the law, observed that the Constitution has provided both designated and special functions to everyone in the country.
He added: “If we are to adhere to these functions and discharge them to the satisfaction of our conscience, then within a short while, you will see that people will begin to realise that certain things should not be done in a democratic system.
“For instance, how can you contemplate blocking the entrance of a court or closing down a court in a civilised democracy? That is not done. How can you deprive the Judiciary of the funds intended to make it function as it should?
“The Judiciary ought to be empowered. We need the assistance of all. The judges have to be free and fair. I keep on telling them that they must remain firm and fair, but courageous.
“You know one thing, a man of integrity cannot be intimidated. You don’t expect a man with integrity to be subservient. No. It is wrong for you to think that way, because time is his witness. Sacrifices are to be made if we are to come out of the woods.’’
An elated CJN hailed the state government for improving on judicial infrastructure and providing judicial officers with conducive environment and improved facilities to function.
He urged other states to emulate “the Rivers example” by ensuring adequate funding and facilities for the Judiciary to function.
Wike said his administration’s decision to improve on the infrastructure of federal courts in the state was not out of its love for profligacy, but for the realisation that the people of Rivers State are the primary beneficiaries of the services to be rendered by the courts, irrespective of its owner.
He noted that his administration was welcomed by a weather-beaten Judiciary, left in ruins by the immediate past administration, who left courts in the state shot for over one year.
Wike said, being mindful of the importance of a functional justice administration system in a democracy, his administration took it upon itself to restore the court system in the state to its appropriate state to enable it function to the benefit of the people.
“We have no regret about the resources we have deployed for this purpose as long as the interests of the people of Rivers State are duly served,” Wike said, and promised to ensure the continued maintenance of all facilities in the new NICN court complex.
He regretted what he described as the threat to judicial independence and stressed the need for the sustenance of the independence of the Judiciary.
Wike urged judges and other judicial officers to always be guided by the law, their conscience and oath of office in dispensing justice irrespective persons and interests.
Justice Adejumo, who told the history of the humble beginning of the NICN’s division in Port-Harcourt, regretted the negative impact of the closure of courts in Rivers State, during the last days of the immediate past administration, on the court’s activities.
The NICN President, who said the court complex surpassed his expectation, however, cautioned that the court would not be swayed by the state’s gesture to pervert justice in its favour or stray from its tenet of ensuring justice to whom justice is due irrespective whose ox is gored.
He told the gathering how he brought to Wike’s attention the many benefits that would be derived by the state and its people, from a functional NICN division in the state capital.
Adejumo added that when he approached Wike for assistance, there were about 950 cases pending before the Port Harcourt division, “and I drew his attention to the risk and cost to the litigants and lawyers in the state.
“He (Wike) promised to provide a befitting court for us within 12 months. I thought he was joking. But, here we are today. We thank you, we thank you, we salute you. This is a federal court. You owe no duty investing the state’s resources in providing this edifice for us.
“But, let me put it on record unequivocally, that this is the first time, in the history of our court, that any state Chief Executive will do what you have done. It will linger on forever in our memory at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, that a man called Wike came, he saw and conquered,” the NICN president said.
He acknowledged the quality of work done in the court complex, the facilities provided, including the fixtures and fittings. He said the government went beyond his expectation.
Adejumo, before ending his speech, accede to the request by the state Solicitor-General, Mrs. Florence Fiberesima, which Okocha amplified, that cases which emanated from the division, but currently being heard in adjoining divisions, be promptly returned to the newly commissioned Port Harcourt division.
He added that, not only will the new court complex be put to use from the next Legal Year, beginning from September, he has directed the deployment of four judges to the Port-Harcourt division to occupy the four courtrooms in the new court house.
Okocha, who expressed delight about the size and magnitude of the structure, said: “I have always believed that our temples of justice must be housed in imposing and majestic edifices, such as the one before us today; so that everyone, who comes here to transact business, will know that something great, something good and something important is happening in this building.
He hailed the governor for improving on judicial infrastructure in the state. Okocha noted that the government has also worked on the state High Court headquarters building in Port Harcourt and the buildings housing the Port Harcourt divisions of the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal.
Okocha restated the request by Mrs. Fiberesima that all cases from the Port-Harcourt division, currently pending in other divisions, be returned to the newly commissioned Port-Harcourt complex.
Justice Iyayi-Lamikanra thanked the governor for his many positive gestures to the state Judiciary, which she said had not only improved on the working condition of judicial officers, but had also enhanced the pace of justice administration in the state.
She said the decision to build an edifice for the NICN was not only a manifestation of the governor’s desire to extend development beyond the institutions of the state, but a clear demonstration of his inflicting support to effective justice delivery
The state’s Chief Judge expressed gratitude to the CJN for his prompt intervention when State High Court headquarters was attached on May 11, this year “by some unscrupulous litigants and criminal elements, who attempted to close down the court headquarters.”
The incident, she said, reminded one of the closure of the court from June 10, 2014 to May 27 May 2015, and until 29 May 2015, when Wike opened it for business on assuming office.
The court complex Mrs. Fibere-sima, in her opening remarks, took the gathering through the court’s complex when she gave a detailed description of the structure and its composition.
She said the construction of the building lasted 15 months from March 1, 2017 when ground breaking ceremony was done.
The state’s Solicitor General said the ground floor of the four-storey building has the main entrance foyer, two lifts; judges’ entrance, with a lift; a car park, restaurant, a kitchen and room for electrical appliances. The floor, she added also houses the security house, a 400kva power generating set and a 500kva transformer.
The first floor, she said, consists of a meeting room, a Registry, a clinic, lawyers’ lounge, the litigation room, an office, a library, a convenience and data room.
Mrs. Fiberesima explained that the second and third floors house the four courtrooms, with two each per floor.
She added: “Both floors also contain judges’ chambers, rest rooms, offices of courts’ Secretaries and Registrars, etc.”
The fourth floor has two legal research rooms, general administration office; offices for the Head of Administration, the Head of Account, Head of Division and the Secretary.”
She said the absence, before now, of a conducive work environment for the NICN in the state had occasioned hardship on on litigants and lawyers, who had to always travel to other jurisdictions like Enugu, Bayelsa, Calabar and Owrri, with the attendant cost and risk, to have their cases heard.
Mrs Fiberesima noted that “with the commissioning of this befitting edifice, these problems been effectively resolved’’.