Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, has disclosed that about 3,000 files have been recovered after the massive damage by hoodlums at the Lagos High Court, Igbosere during the EnsSARS protest.
He said that the State Judiciary has been uploading cases on the DIL system which serves as the ICT unit since 2013 and this has helped in recovering some of the case files that were loss while the court was vandalized.
The Chief Judge made this disclosure when he received the executive of Epe branch of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), during a courtesy visit to his office at the Ikeja High Court.
NBA Chairman in Epe, Ademola Koko visited the CJ alongside, Funmi Adeogun, the Vice-Chairman, Jimoh Saliu, Secretary Prince Sunday Abimbola, former Chairman of the branch among other executives.
Alogba who added that the EndSARs protest and the pandemic has brought about major setbacks for the judiciary stated that the incident has opened their mind to pursue more ICT programs in the Judiciary.
“The EndSARS incident has brought us to a more appreciative position on what we should do about our Directors and that is why we are vigorously pursuing an ICT program in the judiciary.
He added that: “The hoodlums also vandalized over 100 vehicles and other important equipment in the court but we are grateful to God that no life was lost and that it didn’t happen on a day that our staff are at work because there could have been stampede while people are trying to escape.
“We are also grateful to the State Government for all its assistance so far in ensuring that we function well at work as best as we can for now.
The CJ however expressed dissatisfaction over the state of the Libraries in the Lagos State Judiciary.
“I must confess that the state of our libraries in the Lagos state judiciary is not in good condition, our libraries have been totally neglected, we used to have a library that is the repository and even people from the Supreme Court do come to make research there.
“When I came in I visited all the courts and I found the state of what we are calling libraries, they are not fit for primary schools libraries.
“We have started buying books for the libraries and what I did was to start with Supreme Court reports so that any lawyer who wants to do research can make use it them and why I chose the Supreme Court reports is that it’s the final judgement on any issue and it is good for practice purposes.
“We have also bought some other substantive law and practice books authored by different persons and I have make it a policy to buy for the headquarters and all the branch libraries.
“We are trying to build our libraries back and by God’s grace, this year you are going to see substantial libraries because we don’t have other tools as lawyers rather than books. We can never be up to standard and competitive if we don’t have books, You will all see a lot of improvement on our libraries this year,” he stated.
The Chairman of the Bar Association, Epe, Prince Ademola Koko thanked the CJ for honouring their invitation despite everything that happened in year 2020 to the state Judiciary while he also sympathize with him over the unfortunate incident.
He further thank God for giving the CJ the wisdom to handle the situation which if not handled well, it would have affected the judiciary more than expected and in that regard, his executives had visited him to also show solidarity with the CJ.
The Chairman however pleaded with Justice Alogba to assist in ensuring that cases are assigned on time to judges in Epe by the Admin Judge while he also canvases for more judges and other amenities that will make work easier for judges, staff and lawyers in Epe.
He also prayed for the creation of the Probate section, mobile courts in Epe, so that defendant will not have to travel all the way from Epe to Oshodi again before they have access to justice.
Koko further urged the CJ to help bring the library up to date among other requests.
“My lord, some young lawyers still rely on their notes from the law school but if the library is open to us, they can make use it.
The Chairman also seeks for the assistance of the Chief judge on some of their immediate needs in the branch while the CJ promised to look into their request and act in it as soon as he can. (Thenigerialawyer)
