From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has approved a bill seeking to amend the Court of Appeal Act to increase the number of justices in the appellate court from 90 to 150 for second reading.
Sponsored by the member representing Ikot Ekpene/Essien Udim/Obot Akara Federal Constituency of Akwa Ibom state, Patrick Umoh, the proposed legislation titled, “A bill to amend the Court of Appeal Act, Cap C.36, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, is also seeking to increase the number of justices of the Court and provide for appointment of a minimum of six justices in every Judicial division of the Court for speedy and efficient justice delivery and to improve citizens access to justice and related matters”
Leading debate on the general principles of the bill, he explained that though the extant law provides for 90 justices for the Court of Appeal, the number is inadequate to ensure speedy justice delivery.
“The number of justices provided by the law has become inadequate given the recent creation of the new division of the Court-Kano, Gombe, Akwa, Asaba, etc.
“There is a high increase in the volume of cases attended to by the Court, which of course has necessitates the creation of the new divisions. This implies increased workload with fewer hands, which therefore affects quick dispensation at the appellate level.
“Most of the divisions of the Court do not have up to 6 justices, implying that two panels of the Court cannot sit simultaneously to attend to cases, which therefore stall expeditious and timeouts hearing and disposition of cases.
“As a matter of fact, judicial divisions of the Court with a huge volume of cases like Abuja and Lagos ought to have a minimum of nine judges so that the divisions can have three parallel sittings simultaneously.
“It is necessary to note that it is the same inadequate pool of justices of Court of Appeal that are drawn to sit in Election Appeal Tribunals, thereby compounding delay in justice delivery.”
Umoh argued that the bill, if eventually passed into law, would increase the quality and soundness of judicial decisions by making available more hands in the adjudication process at the appellate level.