The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, says it is not acceptable for some judges to continue to delay the delivery of verdicts on cases before them.
According to her, Nigerians would lose confidence in the judiciary if judges continue to fall to deliver judgements in one quarter.
“At the last meeting of the committee, there was a reduction in case disposal as some judicial officers failed to deliver a single judgment in one quarter. This is simply unacceptable.
“My Lords, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot wish away the growing backlog of cases or expect a different result when we continue to do things the same way,” the CJN said in Abuja on Tuesday at the third annual National Judicial Council (NJC) conference on judges’ performance evaluation.
Kekere-Ekun expressed concerns over the increase in the number of pending cases in courts and the low rate of disposition of suits among judges.
“We must be deeply concerned by the increase in the number of pending cases and low disposition rates,” she said.
“As of the first quarter of 2024, we had a total of 243,253 cases pending in our superior courts of record, exclusive of the supreme court.
“This total is comprised of 199,747 civil cases and 43,506 criminal cases.
“It is imperative for all of us to take a serious note of this alarming situation, and for this purpose, we must re-focus our attention towards enhancing our judicial performance,” she said.
