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STAKEHOLDERS in the Judiciary on Wednesday advocated for adequate training of judges, lawyers and other Judicial personnel on the use of modern technologies for the adoption of online and virtual court hearings.
The stakeholders made the call at a two-day workshop organised for judicial workers in Abeokuta, Ogun.
According to the stakeholders, adopting modern technology will fast track the dispensation of justice, and also help in developing the administration of the justice system.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was attended by judges, court regisrars, lawyers and other judicial personnel.
It was organised by Attorney General Alliance – Africa (AGA-Africa), in conjunction with the Ogun State Government.
Those who delivered lectures at the workshop included Justice Bonaventure Mbewe from Zambia; Chief Anthony Idigbe, a renowned lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN); Justice Eniola Fabamwo, an Ogun State High court Judge, and Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, among others.
Delivering his lecture, Justice Mbewe stated that Nigeria and indeed Africa, was ripe for the adoption of virtual court hearing.
Mbewe stressed the need for collaboration among African countries to share knowledge and experience on digitilisation of court proceedings.
“We need to engage our judicial workers more in training on how to use these equipment; let us embrace the technologies, let us teach ourselves, because they are not going to go away.
“Virtual hearings are here to stay, the sooner we embrace them, the better the administration of justice will become.
“I encourage Nigeria to learn as much as you can from other jurisdictions. I encourage you my brother and sister judges to talk among yourselves on how you can improve, how you can deploy technologies to assist you in this area.
“I believe the first thing that Nigeria can do is to interact more with other jurisdictions to learn from what others are doing.
“Virtual trial is a phenomenon everywhere, it is the way to go, it will speed hearings and eliminate unnecessary adjournments and face-to-face court processes.
“To go virtual way in court proceedings is possible, but it is not something that can be done in a day, we can start small and then build on whatever we have.
“It is implementable; in my view within the next three to five years, we should all be there where we can say we are dispensing justice virtually,” he said.
In her welcome address, the Chief Judge of Ogun State, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu said, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic had forced many judges in Nigeria to adopt online court hearing.
Dipeolu said in today’s world, modern technology such as electronic case management system, electronic data management system, e-filing, e- service. e- payment, case tracking systems are deployed to reduce backlog of cases and reduce the menace of delays in the courts.
She noted that Ogun State Judiciary was one of the state’s Judiciaries that had embraced, developed and instituted some of these concepts.
She added that the Ogun State Judiciary’s E- registry which comprised e- filing, e-payment, e-service, e-probate was set.
” I must say that lawyers have not really keyed into electronic filing. I know the concept of change can be difficult but it must be embraced.
“IT Justice has come to stay, we therefore must prepare ourselves as judges and being the major key player in the justice delivery system, to work with the concept of e-justice towards a transparent and effective justice delivery system.
” The goal is to be better at what we do and we must not lose focus of that,” she said.
The chief Judge noted that trainings of this nature were essential toward achieving the goal of a better justice sector, which was technologically supported and driven.
Also in his lecture, Chief Anthony Idigbe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said there was need for both the Federal and State governments to make huge investments in technologies for the full adoption of virtual court hearings.
He said investing into technology would aid quick dispensation of justice system.
He, however, warned that efforts must be put in place to reduce cyber security risk during virtual court proceedings.
Speaking to newsmen on the sideline of the event, Mrs Ebelechukwu Enedah, a partner at Punuka Attorneys and Solicitors, stressed the need for the judicial system to go digital, to decongest the correctional facilities in the country.
She said adopting online court hearing, bail applications could also be held virtually, saying that there would be no need to bring the suspects standing trial to court to take their plea.
She added that suspect could stay in the correctional facilities and with video conferencing, the judge is able to take their plea.
“If we adopt online court hearing, we will have a rapid decongestion of our prison facilities, ” she said.(NAN)
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Tags: Anthony Idigbe Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye Justice Bonaventure Mbewe Justice Eniola Fabamwo
