The Nasarawa State Chief Judge and Chairman Judicial Service Commission, Justice Aisha Aliyu, on Monday, signed a small claims court warrant to pave way for the establishment of special courts that would give people easy access to justice.Justice Aisha, while signing the small claims courts creation warrant in Lafia, said it would bring sanity to the system that had been enmeshed in sharp practices by some law enforcement agents.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Small Claims Court is a specialised court or local tribunal created by statute, with specific duties and powers to provide judicial determination of disputes involving small amounts of money quickly and cheaply with or without legal representation.According to her, cases like armed robbery, kidnapping, culpable homicide had put prisons under pressure requiring to be decongested, noting that small claims courts were avenues to decongest dockets from cases.“
This issue of small claims is something that was agitating my mind ever since I became Chief Judge, because we have petitions, complaints from farmers, and other members of the society who are being short changed by the police and the Civil Defence Corps.“You won’t believe it, the claims may be small but those that take advantage of the parties they pay more than the claims they are asking for, so when we find avenues of relief like small claims, we grab at it eagerly, ” she said.Justice Aliyu said the small claims courts would be operated across the 13 local government areas of the state, while noting that magistrates would be given a time frame to dispense justice because of its specialised nature.“We will not allow it to go the way like a normal season procedure, so we will give them time frame, we’ll not allow it to go on indefinitely, if we didn’t give time frame the aim will be defeated,” she said.Also speaking, Mrs Stella Ajige, Vice President, Business Reform and Easy of doing Business, Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency, said the signing of the claims court was in line with gov Abdullahi Sule’s mandate of making justice accessible to all.According to her, it was no doubt that the small claims courts will advance business by creating an enabling environment for business to thrive in the state.“Small claims are specialised fast track courts that when established within the existing structure of the magistrate, even low income earners, business owners and entrepreneurs are able to access justice for claims that are probably less than five million naira,” she said.Mustapha, Sadiq, Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Lafia, while commending the Chief Judge for taking the bold step of signing the small claims courts creation warrant, said it would bring succour to petty traders and farmers when it came to recovery of claims. (NAN)
