Political interference and poor funding among others have been blamed as some factors responsible for the slow administration of justice in the country.
These were some of the submissions by experts and participants at a legal symposium organised by House of Justice held in Kaduna.
One of the resource person and lead presenter, Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu said both the bar and bench share responsibility for exposing the judiciary to external and political interests.
He posited that the country should seize the opportunity to upscale court connected alternative dispute resolution and argued that any case proceeding to trial should have failed at the ADR level.
In his contribution on the topic ” Streamlining the Challenges of Court Users in Time of Crisis”, a former president of the customary court of appeal in Kaduna, Justice S. H. Makeri lamented the flawed process in appointing judicial officers and the rampant resort to technicalities over substantial justice.
Presenting the bar’s perspective on the theme of the symposium ” Recalibrating Litigation in Time of Crisis”, a legal Practitioner and Senior Advocate of Nigeria Mr Abdullahi Yahaya canvassed for the setting of time limit to determine civil and criminal cases as obtainable in electoral disputes.
In a remark, Head of House of Justice, Miss Gloria Ballason noted that no section of the judiciary has monopoly of knowledge hence the need for sustained synergy in the sector to tackle its numerous challenges.
Godwin Duru
