By YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE

The Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Munta Ladipo Abimbola, on Thursday announced that the only approved channels to swear affidavits in Oyo State judiciary will be online via the website and inside the Registries of the State High Court and Magistrate Court, adding that the judiciary does not make use of agents or touts.

Justice Abimbola made this known during the launch of the OyoCoMis portal on e-Affidavit and e-Probate at the High Court Complex, Ring Road, Ibadan, adding that affidavits from the state judiciary will only be issued through the portal and be trackable to verify its authenticity.

The Chief Judge warned that anybody that patronises agents or touts to provide affidavit from channels that are not approved by the judiciary does so at his own risk as they may be given affidavits that are not known in the records of the judiciary.

Speaking on the need for people that use the services of the judiciary to embrace technology as it is the future of all processes, Justice Abimbola emphasised that happenings in the world today has made it important for everyone to jump on the train of technology to be able to confront modern realities.

“As we all know, especially during the COVID 19 era, the need arose and compelling too, to have some judicial processes made more accessible. The judiciary in most jurisdictions responded to this by creating online platforms for handling non-contentious applications and the like.

“The Oyo State judiciary in like manner is in collaboration with Cinfore, now launching her website for e-Affidavit and e-Probate to facilitate the ease of access to some aspects of the judicial process. Others processes will be added to the website as the need arises.

“I have no doubt in my mind that patronising the approved online channel will not only enhance acceptability of affidavit for use in internal and international transactions but will also drastically reduce, if not eradicate the use of fake affidavits in business transactions,” Justice Abimbola stated.

The Chief Judge urged the public who he described as the highest number of users to use the information on the existence of the service which took the consultants three months to build, to protect themselves from touts who will procure fake affidavits for them, use of which can jeopardise business transactions.

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