A gale of transfers hits Kwara State Judiciary

The Kwara state Chief judge, Justice Abiodun Adebara, has carried out mass transfers of judges in the state high court, in Ilorin

In what many believed to be a major shake-up in the state judiciary, not less than ten judges have been affected by the mass transfers to other jurisdictions outside of the state capital

A circular dated 23rd January 2024, issued by the office of the Kwara state Chief judge, directed all the affected judges to report at their new stations next Monday, 29th, January, 2024.

Not many are surprised at the action of the Chief Judge, who had earlier warned that no stone would be left unturned to revive the ailing judiciary that had been characterised by alleged cases of inertia, in justice dispensation

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Observers have long expressed concerns about the very slow pace of work among the judges, with cases hanging for years without being disposed of.

Though, it is not clear, whether all the judges affected by the transfer, were implicated for their less than satisfactory performance, investigations at the state high courts, have disclosed that the transfers were meant to decongest the Ilorin High Courts and create a more conducive environment for a faster dispensation of justice in the state

Many litigants have repeatedly complained about the very slow pace of justice in the Ilorin High Courts, alleging that some of the judges have not really met the expectation of the public, as cases have piled up for years without determination.

But a highly-placed court official, while admitting to the slow pace of case movement, argued that it would be unfair to blame only the judges.

According to him, many lawyers too were part of the problem, because they always resorted to filing frivolous applications just to delay cases in favour of their clients.

“What do you expect the judge to do when a lawyer files applications in the middle of a case, asking for adjournment for one reason, or the other, the judges hands are tied, because, if you refuse to allow such applications, the chances are that the lawyer will file an appeal in a higher court to argue the application, which might even take a much longer time to be determined, before you can proceed with the main suit, and that’s why you find that such applications are most often granted, just to keep the case going,” a court official said.

Further investigations have also disclosed that most of the judges had yet to embrace the computer technology as they still recorded proceedings and wrote judgements in long hands

Equally challenging are the not too conducive environments for work and poor remuneration of judges and other key judicial workers, which have continued to affect productivity on the bench.