Borno and Niger states have led the ranking of the fastest prosecution of criminal cases in State High Courts in the country, data sourced from the National Judicial Council and the National Population Commission has revealed.

According to the report, Borno State emerged the fastest prosecutor of criminal cases with 158 days.
Niger and Gombe states followed with 182 and 256 days respectively, the report showed.

Edo and Rivers states were at the base of the prosecution of criminal cases’ ranking with 1, 341 and 1, 570 days respectively.
The ranking of the State High Courts was done in a survey conducted by a civic technology organisation, Citizen’s Gavel with funding support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.

The survey titled: Measuring the pace of justice through data: A ranking of states high courts of Nigeria, was presented to reporters in Abuja by Citizens Gavel Team Lead, Mr Nelson Olanipekun.

Olanipekun said the publication spoke in depth to the pace of justice delivery in Nigeria through data sourced from the NJC.
He said a lack of data that measures dispensation of justice had made its delivery “painfully slow.”

“This has turned into a tool that somehow pushes Nigerians to conceding or resulting to various categories of injustice and taking laws into their hands because we lack a fast paced justice delivery system,” he said.

Olanipekun said the report would help the government and development partners to improve the pace of justice delivery in the country and among state high courts.

He said the survey analysed 1,388 cases in the country and observed that there were more cases in the southern states than in the northern states.

The team lead said: “The methodology used is to review the timeline of cases in states from available data from commencement to judgment stage and finding the average per state.

“The report also reveals the number of cases per judge. Imo State has the highest number of 444 cases per judge and it ranks 26th while Adamawa has the lowest number of 12 states per judge and it ranks 7th. Hence, while the number of judges is a contributory factor, we also believe that a policy change is also an important factor to increase the pace of justice delivery.

“This ranking is not intended to discredit any state high courts but to help each state know their assessment. Our intention is to see the pace of justice delivery improve in the country.”

Olanipekun linked good justice system with economic prosperity.
A representative of OSIWA, Tsema Okoye, said Nigeria should ensure that access to justice was equal to access to remedies.
Okoye said efforts from non-state actors are necessary to achieve this. (The Nation)

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