Centre engages stakeholders on improved courts management reporting
By Jessica Dogo
The Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) has engaged stakeholders on the improvement of courts management reporting.
This came to the fore at a two-day workshop tagged: “Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity Building Training”, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The Chairman, National Programme Coordinator for the Court Admi ofre nistration Management (CACM) Project, Dr Oluwatoyin Badejogbin said there had been challenges of managing court cases efficiently and in a timely manner.
Badejogbin said the project sought to adress these challenges by helping courts and departments of public prosecutions to work more efficiently.
This, he said, was with the hope that such efficiencies can improve the output of courts and help to further decongest courts.
Badejogbin said that the organisation would look at the implementation of other interventions that would strengthen case management and help speed up cultural processes through digital recording devices.
“All across courts in the country, we experience challenge of managing cases efficiently and in a timely manner.
“We are looking at implementing a whole range of interventions that will not only strengthen case management, but will help to speed up courts processes through digital recording devices.
“The practice has been that judges write in long hand and that contributes a whole lot of delays in cases so by introducing recording devices, we hope to bring down the delay considerably.
“We also want to strengthen the capacity to manage a couple of courts very efficiently so that we don’t have cases of records being lost,” he said.
The Board Chairman, PPDC, Chibuzo Ekwekwo said the project was already implemented in three states, adding that new states will soon benefit from the programme.
“The states themselves will also invest and take up the programme and improve its expansion across the judicial systems.
“We have to help the court systems improve their manual process because without improving the manual process, digitising becomes difficult.
“The next step is to deploy the infrastructure to digitise the process and have a full impact of using the new system,” he said.
Mr Jibril Shittu, Chief Executive Officer of PPDC, said that the effect of the project on justice was in a way that justice would no longer be delayed but accelerated.
“It is very important because we see the potential impact on the lives of the average citizens.
“When we talk about efficiencies in court systems and processes, court administration scheduling in our various judicial offices and systems need to improve,” he said.
Executive-Secretary, Judicial Service Commission, Nasarawa State, Yahaya Shafa said some of the challenges faced were lack of facilities in court rooms Nigeria.
“This project will help us do better case management, help in acquiring evidence and all these will lead to better administration of criminal justice,”he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CACM project is a pilot that is being implemented in Kaduna, Nasarawa and Plateau States.
The project seeks to improve access to and the dispensation of justice for Nigerians, enhance citizens’ interaction with the government and law using transparency tools. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani
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