Justice Peter Umeadi, chief judge of Anambra State, has commended members of the Bar and Bench for their exploits even as he described `2018 legal year as eventful’.

Justice Umeadi was speaking during a Special Court Session at the Anambra State Judiciary headquarters to mark the commencement of the 2018/2019 legal year in the state.

He said the judiciary under his watch performed well in the area of speedy dispensation of cases, in spite of many challenges militating against it.

The chief judge, who presided over the special court session, used the opportunity of the ceremony to reel out a long list of achievements by the state judiciary within the legal year.

He mentioned some of the achievements to include, creation of three additional Judicial divisions at Neni, Atani and Umunze, provision of utility vehicles for magistrates and conducive working environment for staff.

Umeadi expressed appreciation to Governor Willie Obiano for being responsive to the demands of the judiciary and appealed for more assistance to enable them to tackle their challenges for effective discharge of their duties.

He, however, commiserated with families of 12 members of the judiciary, who lost their lives within the past legal year.

In a speech, Uju Nwogu, the commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of the State, said the ministry would partner the European Union, EU, to install computer-based facility that could ease access to state government cases.

While commending Obiano for reconstituting members of Judicial Service Commission Board, she congratulated Justice Umeadi for creating three new judicial divisions in the state.

These are the divisions at Atani, Neni and Umunze.

“I have secured the assistance of EU to install electronic case management systems in the ministry of justice to determine number of cases, stages and duration of cases in the courts.

“The process of installations has commenced,’’ the commissioner said.

She said the creation of additional three judicial divisions would help to decongest pending cases in courts, while appealing to judiciary staff to be diligent in carrying out their functions.

“Machinery has been installed to stop the lackadaisical attitude of some state counsels in handling court cases.

“We have undertaken comprehensive list of all the cases involving the state government that are pending in various courts,’’ Nwogu added.

Earlier, Ilochi Okafor, SAN, had cautioned that the judiciary would not tolerate any acts of intimidation, threats and harassments on its members.

Okafor, who spoke as a senior member of the Inner Bar, while delivering his address, condemned recent acts of intimidation on state judicial officers.

He noted that some lawyers were unduly harassed by some senior police officers and members of the public, including politicians.

“Threats, killings and physical assault are serious terrors to the judiciary. Most of our colleagues have passed through this several times in Anambra, and we must not let this continue to happen,’’ Okafor said.

He cited instances of a judge in the state who was threatened `through a verifiable phone number` and yet the police did nothing about it, while the same judge was accosted while going home from work and held hostage in his car.

Okafor noted the case of a magistrate, who was bullied by a Divisional Police Officer, DPO, for daring to disobey his orders in a criminal matter that he was handling.

“These acts of intimidation must stop. The judiciary cannot be cowed or intimidated.

“The Bar and Bench must fight this together, because if we are caged, justice is caged.

“I am calling on the honourable chief judge to immediately meet with other stakeholders and schedule a meeting with the Police Commissioner and the Governor to see a way around this,’’ he said.

– Sept. 25, 2018 @ 17:05 GMT |