By Adadareporters
Following the recent protest by legal practitioners handling cases at various High Courts in Nsukka Division of Enugu State, the state government has been advised to build judges’ quarters in the zone to enable the judges to live in the area.
The lawyers, penultimate Tuesday, protested that the refusal of judges to physical preside over court proceedings, as against their choice virtual trials, was delaying court cases and creating burdens for litigants as well as lawyers.
The protesters had claimed that judges at times resorted to using cell phones of court clerks, with its attendant network and other technical glitches.
Lending his voice to it, a civil rights activist, Meletus Okpe, said provision of accommodation to the judges posted to the zone would go a long way in curbing the trend. It was gathered that the practice was on for about two years, with the judges attributing their choice of service delivery to insecurity, especially along Enugu-Nsukka road.
Okpe said, “There may be the need for the building of judges’ quarters in Nsukka. Judges were living in Nsukka before, but those quarters were monetised. So they are no more for public use. Before then, it was occupy-and-leave, and renovations done for incoming ones. There may be the need to revisit such practice in the interest of quick justice dispensation.
“The judges are also blaming insecurity. These judges live in Enugu, and drive through Enugu-Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka before coming to preside over the cases in Nsukka. But there is the presence of security checkpoints almost every two kilometres along the same route. That is the evidence of security on the road. So government has beefed up security. We are also aware that these judges have police orderlies.”
On adoption of state-of-the-arts virtual facilities in courts, he said, “The rules of the courts have provisions for virtual trials. But we are saying that resorting to phones of clerks of courts means that those facilities are not there. So let the facilities be there.
“But if you ask me, virtual trial should not be in all cases. It should not substitute physical trial. We borrow a lot from Lagos State, where it is highly in practice. But at the same time, courts still sit physically in Lagos. There should be cases for virtual, but not in all the cases.”
He said the practice was imposing burdens on litigants and lawyers. In his words, “The litigants and legal practitioners are the victims. Whatever you are paying lawyers to appear in Nsukka may double when the matter is moved to Enugu. To that extent, the litigants suffer. They also fund themselves to Enugu.
“Then lawyers are also at risk. If insecurity is the reason why judges shun physical trials in Nsukka Division, lawyers are also exposed to the same on their way to Enugu to argue cases. They can also be victims of the same thing that judges want to avoid. Virtual trial also makes proceedings slow, and makes lawyers stay unnecessarily in courts. The court staffers are also made to overstay.”
Our correspondent reports that following the protest, judges yesterday resumed physical trials of cases in the zone.
