Lagos pulls down Igbosere, Nigeria’s oldest High Court, as rebuilding begins

The structure of the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere which is the oldest High Court in Nigeria and one of the buildings burnt by hijackers of the #EndSARS protest on October 21, 2020, was on Wednesday pulled down as the Lagos State Rebuilding Trust Fund began reconstruction works on the building.

The court, an inherited legal monument from the colonial days serves as the symbol of Nigeria’s legal history. It will be recalled that hoodlums had during the protest invaded the court; carting away computers, printers, files, fans, air conditioners and other items before setting the court on fire and fled. They also destroyed the nearby Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, world-class Forensic DNA Centre (West Africa’s first), police stations and other public and private infrastructure across Lagos.

And after its destruction, the Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRA), had promised to preserve it as historical heritage. The Director-General, Mrs Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, who made this known during a two-day conference organized by the agency to discuss the heritage of the Igbosere High Court said, “LASRAB, being an agency of the Lagos State Government responsible for heritage preservation, felt it was important to document the history of the building, what is currently going on and to ensure that our voice is lent to preserving the heritage of the building once it is rebuilt.

“We are in talks with the Lagos State Chief Judge and the Nigerian Bar Association. We want to bring together the best minds to achieve this and ensure that history is captured and preserved. This will be a joint project because we believe in partnership,” she said, adding that the history of the Igbosere Court would be documented in a book, which will be available online and offline, with relevant pictures and stories that speak about the court.

The Lagos High Court was first called the Lagos Supreme Court with its existence dating back to the period of the cession of Lagos to the British Government as a colony. It became Lagos High Court at the creation of the Federal Supreme Court and is one of the judicial bodies of the Lagos Judiciary.

Hon. Justice Conrad Idowu Taylor became Chief Justice of the Court on July 22, 1964. The High Court building in Lagos (at Race Course) was the headquarters of the court and is the oldest and most recognisable judicial building in Nigeria.

As the highest-ranking court in the state judiciary, it has under it the Magistrate Courts, the Customary Courts, and the Customary Court of Appeal. Many great lawyers both in the bar and bench had practised their trade in this building with uncountable decisions taken there.

It parades the likes of Justices Joseph Adefarasin, Yahaya Jinadu, Ligali Ayorinde, Rosaline Omotosho, Olusola Thomas, Ishola Oluwa, Abiodun Kensington, Samuel Ilori, Dolapo Akinsanya; and even those who are still alive like George Oguntade, Bode Rhodes-Vivour, who had once sat in different courts in the building.

Also, great lawyers such as Rotimi Williams (SAN), GOK Ajayi, Gani Fawehinmi, Kehinde Sofola, Taslim Elias and others too numerous to mention practised their advocacy in the court.

On Wednesday, two excavators were seen demolishing the remaining part of the structure as part of efforts to reconstruct the court.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had on November 4, 2020, signed an Executive Order to establish an eight-man Lagos State Rebuilding Trust Fund, headed by Mr Yemi Cardoso to rebuild the razed edifice.

Last year, Cardoso, as the chairman of the Lagos State Rebuilding Trust Fund, had informed the public that the Fund which started off as a government binge is now a public-private partnership, adding that “It is now a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), which has its own status and laws for procurement policies and others. The governance and the legality of it will obviously face its own time.

“If it is a committee of government, it would have started work immediately but in this case, you have to ensure that it goes through CAC and other necessary procedure,” Cardoso said.

Enquiries about the timeline and cost of the rebuilding project have not been made public as of the time of filing this report but the grapevine revealed that the project had commenced and the committee will officially brief the press at a later date.

Other members of the rebuilding committee are the Managing Partner, Olaniwun Ajayi LP, Konyinsola Ajayi; Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman; Co-Founder and CEO, Flutterwave, Gbenga Agboola; Vice Chairman, Standard Chartered Bank, Bola Adesola – all representing the private sector – and a representative of an International Donor Agency.

The Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Sam Egube, and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, Jimi Hotonou, are the members on the board representing the public sector.

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