BEVERLY HILLS, November 10, (THEWILL) – The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, Monday, inaugurated a computerisation system for Nigerian Court in order to quicken the administration and delivery of justice in the country.
The CJN, who has less than two weeks to retire, disclosed that the automation of the courts was to improve court efficiency, access to justice and transparency, stressing that such improvement would improve public trust and confidence in the judiciary.
“What we are witnessing today is the solid foundation for tomorrow’s fully automated court. Indeed, this aligns with the vision of transforming from the current predominantly manual court processes and its attendant weaknesses to technological solution ‘tailor-made’ for the Nigerian judiciary,” she said.
The project tagged the Nigeria Case Management System, will assist lawyers to file and serve their cases online through an authenticated email system.
The CJN explained that the system, when fully operational, would remove the delay occasioned by lawyers denying services of court processes on them.
She maintained that though it would take time, patience and determination to make the system fully operational, she said when fully operational, the gains would compensate for the delay.
Speaking at the occasion, the Chairman of the Judicial Information Technology Policy Committee (JITPOCOM) and Chief Judge of Borno State, Justice Kashim Zannah ,said the automation would ease the burden of advocacy and adjudication and generally improved the administration of justice in the country.
The Judicial Information Technology Policy Committee was inaugurated by the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Dahiru Musdapher on January 30, 2012 due to concern with the slow and tedious dispensation of justice and the attendant enormous backlog of cases.
He said that the project aimed at an integrated system for the Nigerian judiciary, such that cases would seamless move from the trial to the apex court.
At present, the project which is being implemented in phases is running in 16 pilot sites namely; the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal (Abuja and Lagos Divisions), the Federal High Court (Abuja and Lagos Divisions), the National Industrial Court (Abuja and Lagos Divisions), the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory as well as the high courts of Bayelsa, Borno, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kogi and Lagos states and the National Judicial Council.
According to Zannah, “This ambitious long-term project commenced in the Supreme Court in order to provide a model that will guide the implementation process at the other courts.”
