The Chief Judge of Kogi State, Hon. Justice Richard Olorunfemi has asked the lawyers in the state to see themselves as critical stakeholders in the administration of justice and cooperate with Judges in the state in order to effectively dispense justice to the people.
The Hon. Chief Judge made the demand while presenting newly appointed Judges for the High Court of Justice to the state’s four branches of the Nigerian Bar Association at the judiciary headquarters in Lokoja this morning.
The newly appointed Judges are Hon. Justice Abubakar Suleiman Ibrahim, Hon. Justice Sulayman Abdallah and Hon. Justice Aminu Ali Eri. The CJ said they are “highly cerebral, have the knowledge of the law and have demonstrated courage, candour and integrity while on the Magisterial Bench before their appointment and the High Court and state judiciary” were happy to have them. He said he had no doubt that they will remain an asset to the judiciary.
He, therefore, asked that they should cooperate within the discharge of their duties
“The most important thing I will implore the lawyers who will be appearing before them from time to time is to please give them maximum cooperation. There cannot be judges without lawyers and there cannot be lawyers without judges. We are all stakeholders in the administration of justice. So there is no need to do our work with rancour. We have to cooperate with one another” he said.
He further admonished the lawyers on their relationship with the judges and urged them to be sincere and honest in their dealings with the courts in the state.
He added: “you are the ones that bring your application and all other processes before the court. You must be sincere in what you bring before the judges.
“Of recent, we have heard how, through you people, some of our brothers were put into very serious problems. You file one application in Owerri and the next thing you are in Kebbi to file another one. And at the end of the day unknowing of the other one over there in Kebbi, he grants or refuses the application. Then the next one that the hammer falls upon is the judge. It is recently that the NBA said no, you cant call the judge only; let the lawyers who filed these processes also be involved in this disciplinary action. So, we need sincerity and honesty. We look onto you as our mirror because you are the one who mixes with society than us. “
In evaluating the condition under which the judiciary hosted the lawyers, the Hon. Chief Judge lamented the absence of basic infrastructure in the Kogi State judiciary like a ceremonial court. He was however hopeful that the judiciary’s financial autonomy would see the light of the day so that the state judiciary would be able to get the infrastructure it needs.
“What happened this morning actually shows the need for this autonomy we are talking about. This court one cannot be referred to as a ceremonial court. Some of our brothers have to hit their heads on the wall here while we were struggling to squeeze ourselves into the courtroom. I could remember during the regime of Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, the DG Government House was here. That was about seven years ago. We had an occasion here and the man told the Hon. CJ by then that look, before next year runs out there must be a ceremonial court here. That is the ceremonial court we are in today. Even visitors that are here with us are perplexed. How can you call this place a ceremonial court? It is only ceremonial because it is High Court Number One. So it is not our will to start squeezing ourselves but it is the level that we found ourselves. But I believe that very soon we will get there” he said.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim O. Alhassan Esq., the Chairman of the Confluence Bar, the Lokoja branch of the NBA who spoke on behalf of others, urged courts to be proactive in the defence of human rights. He said “the primary objective of any court is the attainment of justice irrespective of the disposition or approach of a party to the prosecution or the defence of the matter placed before the court. It is the duty of the court to state the correct position of the law on the subject before it.
“The seeming arbitrary remanding of a suspect without given the opportunity to be heard in court. It defies legal, logic, and common sense to remand a person in prison without giving him an opportunity to say why he should not be there.”
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