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Godwin Tsa Abuja
Giving the damaging effects of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic on the justice sector, the Federal Government has rolled out post plans to adjust the judicial process to make for recovery of lost grounds occasioned by the lockdown.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN) explained that the necessity to prevent the spread of COVID-19 virus has led to, among other things, a nationwide closure of court rooms (save for certain exceptions).
In the document released yesterday, Malami stated that considering the current realities and in adjusting to the times, “we will work with the Judiciary at the Federal and the State levels to arrive at a workable mechanism for achieving these within the shortest time possible. We will continue with the on-going implementation of the National Policy of Justice with renewed vigour, while making necessary adjustments as may be required due to the COVID-19 disruptions.
“One major lesson from COVID-19 is that the Nigerian Justice Sector must seriously leverage technology in the improvement of its capacity and for facilitating fair and speedy administration of justice.”
Malamai disclosed that the justice sector will make use of information technology as a tool to cover the lost ground in our judicial system adding that measures are already on going to address this in our judicial system.
“Robust use of technological tools to conduct proceedings including virtual proceedings, (this would also enable the Justices/Judges to preside over matters in their chamber without being physically present in a formal court room, parties and their counsel will only connect through teleconference means) etc. Some of these adjustments are not simple and may require certain amendments of the Law (or Issuance of Rules of Court and Practice Directions) as may be necessary.
“The judges will be sitting and maintaining social distance while the lawyers’ interface with the courts through their digital computers should be considered in certain cases.
“We expect the judiciary to keep supporting the Presidential Task Force on COVID -19 and consider how best to start opening up as soon as possible and to start tackling backlog of cases. We will start by seeing how much cases can be handled online or without a face-to-face interaction leveraging on the use of technology.”
