By Edith Nwapi
The FCT Chief Judge (CJ), Justice Husseini Baba- Yusuf on Monday signed the practice direction and guidelines on trial of sexual and gender-based violence cases and ancillary procedure on application for protection order under the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act.
Baba-Yusuf signed the practice direction on the sidelines of the ceremony marking the 2022/2023 legal year.
He also appended his signature on the practice directions on small claims 2022.
“These are carefully thought out practice directions to not only enable but also to enhance the workability of the VAPP Act and other related statutes in the Territory.
“The small claims practice direction is to promote access to justice and speedy disposal of inexpensive, simple and small liquidated claims.
“In the past one year, the Court has witnessed an upsurge in the number of cases filed in our Registries.
” This is understandably so, considering the fast pace at which the Federal Capital Territory has continued to develop; and movement of people into the Federal Capital as a result of insecurity in some parts of the country.
” As a result, in the last one year, we have witnessed an increase in the number of civil and criminal cases filed in the High Court, the Magistrate Courts and the Customary Court of Appeal.
” Details of the return of cases of each of these Courts have been tabulated in the Annual Report except to remark that our disposal rates have marginally increased, compared with the previous years” he said.
He said 8,831 cases were brought forward from 2020/21 legal year in the high courts.
7, 049 new cases were assigned in the course of the legal year, 4, 564 were dispensed with, 11, 316 are pending.
In the Magistrate courts, 4, 474 cases were brought forward, 10, 941 new cases assigned.
Baba-Yusuf said 9, 988 cases were dispensed with while 5, 427 cases are pending.
“As an institution, we shall continue to strive to meet the demands of Court users and the general public.
” As I salute my Brother Judges and Magistrates for rising to the occasion, toiling tirelessly in attending to cases assigned to them, despite the prevailing conditions under which they work;
” I continue to enjoin us to remain steadfast in the discharge of our duties of adjudication in meeting with the expectations of the society.
According to him, today’s world and tomorrow’s world will be regulated by Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
” It is therefore needless to restate that the time is now for the FCT Judiciary to fully embrace the electronic Court system in order to align our operations with contemporary international best practices and trends.
” I do recognize the efforts of my predecessors in office at setting up a system whereby litigants are enabled to file cases online; and for our Courts to be digitalized.
” However, in order to avoid the identified pitfalls of the past efforts at achieving this goal, we have begun collaborations with the International Certification for Digital Literacy (ICDL)in order to engender a sustainable digitalization of the FCT Judiciary” he said.
According to him, with the active support of the Judicial Information Technology Policy Committee (JITPCO) of the National Judicial Council, (NJC), the year ahead shall witness a significant transformation of the operations of the Court in the area of digitalisation.
Baba-Yusuf said in order to eliminate affidavit racketeering by touts, he created the Commissioner for Oaths Department, which used to be a unit under the enforcement department, in December, 2021.
According to the CJ, the department witnessed a huge turn around with the introduction and launching of a system of digitalisation of affidavits.
This is known as Affidavit Registry Management Systems (ARMS), which placed all forms of affidavits in electronic format.
“The introduction of ARMS has made the process of obtaining affidavits in the court more seamless and time efficient; eliminating the incidence of touting that marred the manual issuance of affidavits.
“More significant is that the fidelity and authenticity of affidavits issues by this Court are now guaranteed” he said.(NAN)
