Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola has disclosed that 6, 884 cases are suffocating the Supreme Court.
The CJN, who stated this in Abuja on Monday at a special session of the Supreme Court to mark the commencement of the 2022/2023 legal year and the swearing-in of 63 newly conferred Senior Advocates of Nigeria, lamented that most of the cases are incredible.
He lamented that the 6,884 cases, who were appeals filed by different individuals are still pending in the court.
Reeling out the Supreme Court’s performance in the last legal year, he noted that the pending (backlog) civil appeals are 4,741 while the number of pending criminal appeals are 1,392.
Ariwoola pointed out that the are 751 moribund appeals for disposal, bringing the total number of pending appeals in the court to 6884.
“Out of the 4,741 civil appeals in the court’s docket, 1,495 have briefs filed and exchanged and are ready for hearing; whereas, the remaining 3,246 appeals are having about 10,000 motions, with some contentious and others innocuous in nature", he added.
He noted that out of the pending 1,392 criminal appeals, that 461 already had briefs filed and exchanged and are ready for hearing.
The CJN stated that 931 appeals have about 2,000 different motions to determine their eligibility for hearing.
He maintained that the identified 751 moribund appeals would soon be disposed for non-compliance with the Supreme Court Rules (Order 8 Rule 8).
“Also, within the window offered by the 2021/2022 legal year, the Supreme Court entertained a total number of 1,764 cases, comprising of motions and appeals", he said.
He disclosed that out of 1,764 cases, that the court heard 816 Civil, 370 criminal and 16 political matters, making a total of 1,202 cases.
The CJN further said that the court considered a total number of 562 appeals, comprising of 341 civil, 186 criminal, and 35 political, adding that a total number of 154 Judgments were delivered within the year under review.
Justice Ariwoola noted that the Supreme Court ranks as the busiest in the world due to Nigerians’ preference for litigation as against exploring other dispute resolution mechanisms.
He pleaded with the National Assembly to speed up the process of amending the Constitution to reduce the number of cases filed at the Supreme Court.
The CJN lauded the efforts of Corruption and Financial Crimes Cases Trial Monitoring Committee for its performance in the last legal year, adding that it facilitated the prompt determination of many cases.
He hinted that between October 2021 and September 2022, that a total number of 3,563 convictions were made through the collaborative effort of the committee.
Justice Ariwoola stated that large number of forfeited cash and non-cash recoveries were made within the period under review.
Out of the 62 new SANs, 53 are advocates while nine are academics.
Comments
Post a Comment