How magistrate’s court congestion can be reduced in Abuja – Ex-judge

A retired a judge of the Lagos State High Court, Olusola Williams, has advised the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) judiciary to introduce ‘case filtering system’ to tackle case congestion in its magistrate’s courts.

The Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) Case Filtering System was developed by the Lagos State judiciary as an innovative measure of weeding frivolous cases out of its dockets.

Mrs Williams spoke at a workshop organised by the Magistrates Association of Nigeria-FCT in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation, Fight Against Corruption in the Judiciary and Duty Solicitors Network on Monday in Abuja.

Speaking on constitutional bottlenecks that impede justice delivery process in the FCT magistracy, Mrs Williams noted that magistrates are not recognised by the Nigerian constitution — thereby subjecting them to inferiority complex in adjudication.

“The fact that magistrates are not recognised by the constitution, affects their psyche in adjudicating on cases before them,” Mrs Williams, who retired voluntarily from the High Court bench to train paralegals, said.

“Because the constitution talks about superior courts of record and listed them, while the magistrate court was not listed, so, people began to say the magistrate court is an inferior court of record. Yet it is supposed to give superior justice as the superior court does,” the retired judge explained.

This, according to her, formed the consideration of the Supreme Court decision that “the magistrate lacked the jurisdiction to have granted the order.” This is ridiculous. This is one of the bottlenecks,” Mrs Williams who heads the Institute of Paralegal Services in Lagos, said.

How filtering of case system works

Giving insights into the workings of the Lagos case filtering system, Bayo Akinlade, convener, Duty Solicitors Network and Fight Against Corruption in the judiciary, said the State’s Director of Public Prosecution, stations lawyers from the Justice Ministry at various magistrates courts, who scrutinise case files.

“These lawyers from the office of the DPP go through the charges that have been filed by the police; to see whether they have merit or not.

“Through that process of examining the proof of evidence supplied by the police, the lawyer would be able to filter frivolous charges from potentially credible ones that can go to trial,” Mr Akinlade who was chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu Branch in Lagos explained.

“This procedure is swift and does not give room for delays in waiting for the DDP’s legal advice which often takes several months in most cases, with the resultant effect being crowded court dockets at the magistracy,” the Lagos-based lawyer said.

Agreeing with Mr Akinlade, Mrs Williams said: “One of the things that delays trials is that magistrates wait for the (legal) advice of the Director of Public Prosecution, and that is forever.”

Drawing a distinction between what obtains in Abuja and Lagos, she noted that “the problem with Abuja magistracy is the use of First Information Report, which doesn’t come with proof of evidence.”

In dealing with the issue, Mrs Williams advised magistrates in Abuja to critically examine FIRs that are filed to determine whether there is a good cause of action before going to hear them.

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“The way that can work is that a magistrate can take a look at the FIR and decide if a case can go on or not,” she said, noting that “The filtering system works in civil cases through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).”

“We have to embrace ADR. For instance tenancy or debts matter shouldn’t go to trial. Luckily, Abuja has a court-comnected ADR,” she added.

Poor welfare of magistrates discussed

In his welcome address, the Chairman of Magistrates Association of Nigeria-FCT, Musa Eneye, said the issue of his colleagues’ “welfare cannot be overemphasised.”

He noted that most magistrates are being affected by the pervading insecurity in Nigeria, calling for improved protection of members of his association from attacks.

Similarly, Mr Akinlade disclosed that magistrates in Lagos were being evicted by their landlords over inability to pay rents.

Mr Akinlade urged the FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello, to look into the issue of welfare of magistrates