The State Chief Judge, Justice Elvis Ngene has said that within the year under review, that 15 new Magistrate were appointed by the Judicial Service Commission bringing the total number of Magistrate in the state judiciary to 47
Ngene noted that it’s the highest number in the history of the judiciary, while he described the availability of judicial personnel as critical to the provision of quality and efficient justice delivery and access to justice generally.
Ngene disclosed this at the high court premises in Abakalikl, the state capital during a ceremony marking the opening of the 2023/2024 Legal year of the state judiciary.
He further noted that between 2022/2023, a total of 9,218 cases were filed at the high court while 11,389 cases were disposed of.
“Inadequacy of judicial personnel is part of the reason we have a backlog of pending case’s to in the dockets of the court and it is hoped that with this positive development, things will take a different turn in our Magistrate courts across the state.
The chief judge has urged the newly appointed Magistrates to brace up to the challenge of ensuring that they contribute their own quota and make their presence felt in the vanguard of efficient and quick justice delivery
He opined that notwithstanding the currently economic realities, the state judiciary has within the year under review vigorously pursued the welfare of the staff through training and retraining of the judicial personnel at all levels.
He revealed that the state government has been very supportive in ensuring that as much as possible, judges are enabled to carry out their duties with minimal or nil inconveniences.
“The lingering issues of the arrears of salaries and promotion of staff of the various courts have been finally laid to rest with every member of staff getting what was due to him or her”, he said.
On his part , the state Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Chief Ben Odoh said the present administration in the state has built a multi-door Courthouse that provides a range of justice mechanisms, including mediation, arbitration and hybrid processes to promote dispute resolution outside the traditional adversarial court system.
