The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, has warned Directors and Inspectors of Area/Sharia Customary Courts not to harm judicial process, urging them to imbibe best practices in their supervisory roles.
The CJN gave the warning in a key note address at the virtual opening ceremony of the National Workshop For Directors and Inspectors of Area/Sharia/Customary Courts held in Abuja.
The workshop is organised in furtherance of the institute’s mandates as established by Act N55 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to deepen the culture of quality Justice delivery at all levels.
The theme of the workshop is; Promoting Efficient Justice Delivery In the Lower Courts.
Muhammad reminded participants that in building public confidence in the court, it was mandatory for them to carry out their duties diligently with a view to seeing that Justice prevails in the society.
While urging participants not to engage in activities that harm the fairness and efficiency of judicial process, he further charged them not to bring the Judiciary into disrepute.
“You must not engage in activities that harm the fairness and efficiency of judicial process. You should not also bring the Judiciary into disrepute and, must be proactive and pay regular visits to the courts in order to keep personnel’s on their toes.
“It is my expectation that at the end of the workshop, knowledge relating to promotion of efficient Justice delivery In the lower Courts would have been embraced,” the CJN noted.
In his welcome address at the programme, the new administrator of the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Justice Salisu Garba, tasked Directors and Inspectors of Area/Sharia Customary Courts on the need to imbibe best practices in their supervisory roles.
While speaking further, the administrator charged the participants to adhere strictly to the dictates of their jobs schedule, saying it would help prevent Judges and Staff of the courts from abuse of their discretionary power.
“You must be conscious of the fact that some Judges of the Area/Sharia/Customary Courts are not legal practitioners, as such, you must as Directors and Inspectors watch out for any inadequacies to prevent Judges of such Courts under your supervision from using unwholesome methods in arriving at decisions and an avoidable miscarriage of justice.
“You must be discering, to avoid creating in the minds of litigants the impression of bias. Where allegations of bias are made against Judges in Courts under your supervision, your responsibility is to carefully investigate and evaluate and evaluate your findings with care and diligence,” Garba added.
