BEVERLY HILLS, January 30, (THEWILL) – The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on Monday decried the delay in the administration of justice in Nigeria, access to justice and quality of justice in the country, calling on judges and lawyers to change their attitudes and stand up for what is right.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day Stakeholder’s Summit organized by the Lagos State Ministry of Justice in Lagos, he identified delay in the administration of justice as a major challenge that must be jointly tackled by all relevant stakeholders in the judiciary.
The professor of Law and senior advocate noted that 67, 586 Awaiting Trials are currently in various prison formations in the country, and called on the judiciary, as a way out of the problem, to embrace day-to-day system for trials and heavy punishment for deliberate act of delay aimed at stalling cases.
Represented by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN, he said, “It may interest you to note that the highest number of un sentenced detainees in Nigeria as at the end of 2015 based on data released by the national bureau of statistics, NBS, and the Nigerian Prison Service, Lagos has a total of 6, 522 prisoners out of which 5, 603 are Awaiting Trials”.
Osinbajo added that this represents 85.9 percent of total prison population and 10.4 percent of Nigeria total prison population.
He also said it was also important for the judiciary to introduce significant costs for delay occasioned especially by lateness, ill-preparedness or deliberate tactics.
The Acting President criticised some judges who would not sit on time and rise early and lawyers who file frivolous applications and employ other delay tactics as well as shoddy police investigation, and admonish them to desist from such.
“If we can agree that these problems are against our collective interests as practitioners and stakeholders, then we must make a firm commitment to tackle the problems by changing our attitude and standing up for what is right,” he said.
Osinbajo stated that although Nigeria was just crawling its way out of recession, it was gratifying that the Ambode-led administration deemed it important to invest in the summit so as to address some of the institutional challenges preventing the country from developing a first-class justice system in its commercial nerve centre.
In his address, the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode declared that for any nation to experience economic growth, there must be a functional judicial system that would not only encourage local and foreign investors to invest in, but also guarantee conducive environment for such businesses to thrive.
He pointed out that experience over the years have shown that societies with equal and unhindered access to justice have a better environment for economic growth and poverty alleviation than those that do not.
