Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, President of the Court of Appeal says the appellate court has 39,526 pending cases.
Justice Dongban-Mensem disclosed this during a ceremony to usher in the 2023/2024 new legal year and explained that the appeal court received 7,295 appeals and 3,665 motions in the 2022/2023 legal year.
She said: “During the 2022/2023 legal year, a total of 7,295 appeals and 3,665 motions were filed in the 20 Divisions of the Court.
”The court determined 3,765 cases and disposed of 5,617 motions; 1,030 of these appeals had been dismissed and 10,381 allowed.
“The court still has a total of 39,526 Appeals pending as of 31st of August, 2023. This is an increase from 34,037 pending in the Court in the 2021/2022 Legal Year.”
According to her, the Abuja division is overwhelmed by voluminous documents and lacks adequate storage facilities and office space.
She appealed to the Minister of the FCT to provide a large piece of land for the construction of the Abuja Division.
Justice Dongban-Mensem stated that 98 panels were constituted to hear election petitions across the country to handle a total of 1,209 petitions that were filed.
According to her, among the petitions, five were filed at the presidential election petition court and concluded, while some of 147 filed at the senatorial election tribunal have been delivered and 417 petitions from the House of Representatives election are also attended to.
“A total of 557 petitions associated with the State houses of Assembly, and 83 gubernatorial elections petitions are being disposed of, and twenty-eight states participated in the governorship elections, and petitions were filed in 24 states,” she said.
In his remark, the former Minister of Justice, Mr Kanu Agabi, (SAN) who spoke on behalf of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN) pleaded with Judges and Justices not to lose confidence and principles in themselves no matter the challenges.
Agabi said that Nigeria’s continued survival greatly depends on the transparency of judicial officers in the discharge of their judicial functions.
He added that the contributions of judicial officers in the past years which he said, have kept the country intact and from chaos and anarchy.
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