Minna based legal practitioner, Mohammed Kudu Ndayako, has described as dangerous the proposed establishment of more divisions of Supreme Courts across Nigeria......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
Speaking with journalists in his office, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said Nigeria’s justice system as it stands today does not require the establishment of division of any Apex Court for now.
Ndayako who was the Niger state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deputy Governorship candidate in the 2015 elections argued that several divisions of court of appeals end up given conflicting and contradicting judgements is affecting the country’s administration of justice system.
“Establishing more divisions of Supreme Courts now will be dangerous to our administration of Justice system, because we have several divisions of court of appeal”.
He argued that, “We cannot pretend about it because most of these courts of appeal lacked certain facilities, they could end up giving conflicting and contradictory decisions on the same subject matter”.
Ndayako who had served as the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) state chairman further argued, “It shouldn’t be like that so much so that at the end of the day, which of the decision of the court of appeal are you going to follow?
He state in clear terms that the proposal by the Lower Chamber of the National Assembly for the establishment of the Nation’s Apex Court across Nigeria would have more of a negative effect on the Nation’s Justice system than any good.
He advised members of the lower chamber of the National Assembly to be more concerned about restricting certain cases that should not ordinarily go to the Apex court instead of proposing for the establishment of more of such courts, adding that if a certain decision is decided at the appellate court, it would only be affirmed at the Apex court.
Ndayako suggested that, “The lawmakers should be more concerned about restricting certain cases that should go to the Apex court. There are some decisions once they are decided at the court of appeal, the matter should end there at the court of appeal”.
It is not every case that should be taken to the Apex court, particularly civil and contractual cases, pointing out that a matter that is already decided at the appellate court can only be affirmed at the Apex court.
A situation whereby there are divergent opinions on the same subject matter already decided at the appellate court as a result of the structures of the court of appeal, there is no need for the establishment of any division of the Apex court.
To avoid unnecessary confusion, Ndayako said he is of the belief that, “If the required mandatory numbers of Justices of the Supreme Court is maintained, I think they will be able to handle multiple cases that are filed before them. We don’t need to balkanize our supreme court for now”.
“I don’t think it is ideal for Nigeria as a nation to have multiple Supreme Courts. The best thing to do is that once a matter is already decided at the court of appeal and Justices of court of appeal have given their opinion, the matter should not have any place upstairs”.
The problem in the judicial arm of government is not about establishing more Supreme Courts but sustaining existing ones according to expected standards. “To me, I don’t think we should have more than one Supreme Court in the country”.
