Nigerian courts go digital

 

Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, Chief Justice of Nigera, in Abuja, launched the computerization of the Nigerian Court system.

This move aims to fast track justice administration and delivery in the country, hence improving the public trust and confidence in the country’s judicial system.

“What we are witnessing today is the solid foundation for tomorrow’s fully automated court. Indeed, this aligns with the vision of transforming ‎from the current predominantly manual court processes and its attendant weaknesses to technological solution tailor-made for the Nigerian judiciary”.

With this development, lawyers will now be able to file their cases online under the ‘Nigeria Case Management System’ through and emailing system.

According to the Chief Justice the system will take alittle more time before it gets fully functional and arged the nation to be patient with the whole process.

‎The chairman of the Judicial Information Technology Policy Committee; JITPOCOM, and Chief Judge of Borno State, Justice Kashim Zannah, said the automation would ease the burden of advocacy and adjudication, and generally improve administration of justice in the country.

The Judicial Information Technology Policy Committee ‎was inaugurated by former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher on January 30th, 2012 due to concern with the slow and tedious dispensation of justice and the attendant enormous backlog of cases.

The project aims at an integrated ‎system for the Nigerian judiciary, such that cases would seamless move from the trial court to the apex court, is being implemented in phases and running in 16 pilot sites for now, which include the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal (Abuja and Lagos Divisions), the Federal High Court (Abuja and Lagos Divisions), the National Industrial Court (Abuja and Lagos Divisions), the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory as well as the high courts of Bayelsa, Borno, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kogi and Lagos states and the National Judicial Council.