Abia State Chief Judge, Justice Onuoha Ogwe has identified lack of proper funding and Independence of the Judiciary as major factors affecting the smooth dispensation of Justice in the State.
Speaking to Newsmen to herald the commencement of the New Legal Year, Justice Ogwe said other challenges such as lack of infrastructure, adequate manpower as some of the impediments to the adminstration of justice in the state.
Justice Ogwe said: “The Challenges are well known starting from Infrastructure, we do not have enough court halls in our various Judicial Divisions.
“We had situations whereby five magistrates sit in one court hall, some sit in the morning,some sit in the afternoon, it does not leave room for privacy and effectiveness. Some of the court halls do not have toilet facilities and you know most of our magistrates are women, you can imagine when a woman is pressed where would she go to ease herself.
The Chief Judge who faulted the non involvement of the Judiciary in the construction and designing of court halls said such court halls do not conform with the standards of modern court halls.
” The existing court halls are just called court halls in mail, if you see them, you would be sorry for what we have as court halls.
“When you talk about furniture, some of our courts don’t have chairs, maybe somebody will sit for some hours and get up for another person to sit, it is as bad as that.
“The courts are congested with too many cases, for an instance, in the High
Courts, when a judge has an average of two hundred cases, how on earth is he going to finish those cases and new ones are being filed”, he disclosed.
