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One way of
achieving quick administration of justice and decongestion of cases in
the courts is by amending the 2010 Constitution to give power to
traditional rulers to resolve minor disputes, the administrator of the
National Judicial Institute (NJI), Umaru Eri, has said.

Mr Eri said this on
Monday in Abuja at the opening of a workshop on arbitration and
alternative dispute resolution for judges and khadis with the theme:
“Effective use of Arbitration and ADR for Better Justice Delivery.”

According to Mr
Eri, “Traditional rulers of today can be effectively engaged to assist
in sanitising delay in the administration of justice by amending the
Constitution to give them powers to resolve minor disputes. Rightly or
wrongly, that is my personal view and no more. I hope the National
Assembly will give our traditional rulers this role in our
Constitution.” Furthermore, he said before the introduction of the
present court system in the country, disputes were traditionally
resolved by village elders by way of mediation aimed at amicable
settlement of such disputes. This system was quick, cheap and did not
breed bad blood.”

Mr Eri said he
grew up to see elders and traditional rulers settle disputes in their
various communities in the country. “The colonial masters came and
tampered with this tradition. Courts were established in northern
Nigeria and the native ones graded ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. So it was in other
parts of the country. But the colonial masters still retained elders,
district Heads and traditional rulers of all grades as operators of
these courts. Performance was undoubtedly appreciative.

“I, therefore,
urge this workshop to have a rethink and come out with a judicial
policy for consideration by the authorities. To me, and like minds, the
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism is better called African
Dispute Resolution mechanism. The present inherited procedure is the
alternative.”

He added that the
nation’s present court system of dispute resolution “has substantially
remained the relic of the British colonial rule in Nigeria as in some
other Commonwealth countries.”

According to him,
“Bad blood is injected to the extent that bad relationship becomes
inevitable. No one would forgive another easily for the fact of
dragging another to court. Many of us believe that some of our
inherited procedural ways of settling disputes must be revisited if we
desire quick and affordable administration of justice.

“It is interesting
that even today stakeholders in justice administration in more advanced
countries are having a rethink on the continued utilisation of
litigation as a method of resolving all manner of disputes”.

Stressing the
importance of traditional rulers in the present search for ADR, he
said, “They adjudicated effectively before and during the colonial
administration. Why should they not now be involved?

“Today, we have eminent jurists who are traditional rulers and title
holders like Mammam Nasir, Sulu Gambari, Oba John Ajakaiye, Oba
Olateru-Olagbegi, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, Umaru Abdullahi, S.M.A. Belgore.”

The Ogun State governor-elect, Ibikunle Amosun,
yesterday inaugurated a policy working group, comprising five
committees with a mandate to work out modalities for the efficient
performance of his administration when he assumes office May 29.

At the ceremony which took place at the spacious
Hubert Ogunde Hall of the June 12 Cultural Centre in Kuto, Abeokuta, Mr
Amosun explained that he had developed a five-point agenda derived from
the progressive programmes and manifestos of his party, the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

According to him, the group has been divided into six
sub-committees, namely: health, education, agriculture, rural
development and rural industrialisation, lands, housing and urban
renewal committee, budget and economic planning and security.

Mr Amosun added that the main committees would
coordinate the various work groups relevant to their respective focal
areas, stressing that the terms of reference include: assessment of the
current state of affairs, identifying the challenges and opportunities
that could be leveraged, identifying the required transitional
initiatives and roadmap to attain the goals.

He said the reports are expected in two weeks’ time,
adding, “We recognise that this is a rather short duration.
Nonetheless, we trust that these eminent personalities are capable of
working around every constraint there may be, including time, to
deliver the objectives of this assignment.

“The other area I will request committees and the
work group to devote attention to is the funding of programmes and
projects. The precarious state of the finances of Ogun State is well
known to merit any rehash here. It is therefore imperative that some
thought be devoted to identifying creative sources of funding for the
implementation of the policies and programmes,” Mr Amosun appealed.

“It is my hope and prayer that the policy document and more
importantly its implementation will become a reference point in
responsive governance in the country. It is indeed one key element of
the process designed to meet the yearnings and expectations of the good
people of Ogun State,” he said.

A Federal High
Court in Abuja yesterday discharged one out of the seven accused
persons standing trial for allegedly defrauding the pension office of
the Head of Service of the Federation of Nigeria of N12 billion.

Counsel to the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Godwin Obla, asked the
court to discharge the fifth accused person, Mohammed Katun Ahmed,
declaring that the commission was no longer interested in prosecuting
him. It was however gathered that the EFCC plans to use him as a
prosecution witness.

At yesterday’s
sitting, a 134-count charge against the persons for their alleged
involvement in the scam was read to them. They all pleaded not guilty
to all the charges.

The suspects are
Sani Teidi Shuaibu, former director, pension administration in the
Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation; Phina
Ukamaka Chidi, former deputy director (finance and accounts), and Aliyu
Bello, a personal assistant to Mr Shuaibu.

The other accused
persons are Garba Abdullahi Tahir, Mohammed Katun Ahmed, Emmanuel
Olanipekun, Abdullahi Omeiza, Computer Plaza, Essential Gadget
Ventures, Mobis Point Investment Ltd, Obista Enterprises, Shallow Well
Ventures, Mof Investment Ltd, Zumba Resources, Pam Investment and
Properties Ltd, Moshfad Enterprises, Newgate Projects Ltd, RedWings
Energy Ltd, RedWing Procurement Services Ltd, and Woodland Industries
Nigeria Ltd.

Others are Nwab
Tessy Enterprises Nig, Chris J. Junior Ventures, Uthaka Nigeria Ltd,
Bashinta Nigeria Ltd, Haleath Enterprises, Gozinda Enterprises, Omozua
Ventures, S.S. Badejo Entreprises, Lopee Ventures, Fafama Oil and Gas
Ltd, Fafama Estate Developer Ltd and Riba-Ile Petroleum Ltd.

Two of the
suspects, Mr Bello and Mr Omeiza, who were absent from court the last
time, on account of which the court ordered a bench warrant for their
arrest, were in court yesterday.

After their
arraignment, counsel to Sani Shuaibu, Sunday Ameh and Chris Uche, and
counsel to the other accused persons, both pleaded with the court to
grant their clients bail since the alleged offence was not a capital
offence, adding that they have been under administrative bail by the
court and have never jumped bail. The EFCC counsel did not oppose the
bail application.

The presiding
judge, Adamu Bello, granted bail to the accused persons in the sum of
N10 million and a surety in like sum. The surety must be resident in
Abuja and must possess landed property within the jurisdiction of the
court; the land title must be verified by the deputy chief registrar of
the court. Their international passports and that of the sureties are
also to be deposited in court and they are to report to the EFCC every
Monday of the week until investigation is over and that they should be
remanded in prison custody if they fail to meet the bail condition.

The accused are
under trail for using ghost pensioners to fraudulently pay N2 million
and N3 million into their accounts monthly, later diverting the sums by
awarding fictitious contracts to the above listed companies which they
managed. The agency found out that out of over 141,000 names on the
list of pensioners, only 90,000 were genuine, meaning that the 51,000
other names on the list were fake but were all receiving money from the
federal government, thus causing the bill to balloon to well over N3
billion.

About 14,216 babies have been delivered in the last 15 months at the Mother and Child Hospital in Akure.

Disclosing this to
reporters at a news conference in the state capital yesterday, the
State Commissioner for Information, Ranti Akerele, explained that an
average of 20-25 deliveries are recorded daily, thereby making it the
busiest maternity hospital in Ondo State.

The 100-bed
facility is dedicated to the care of pregnant women and children less
than five years of age, offering tertiary level health services free of
charge. Mr Akerele explained that the management of the hospital is
currently working towards a partnership with the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Modern equipment

“As at 2 May 2011
about 15 months of operations,10,315 pregnant women, and 14,216
children (2,754) as pediatric inpatients have been registered and
treated with about 20 percent of them being non-residents of Ondo
State.

“Today the facility
at the Mother and Child hospital is amongst other things, a unique and
cost effective digitalised drug procurement system that has practically
eradicated out of stock syndrome, the bane of many free health schemes
across the country.

“The mother and child hospital has at its procession, state of the
art training equipment including electronic force monitoring birthing
and airway management simulators for life like practical demonstrations
and applications on emergency care.”

The strike embarked
upon by judiciary workers in Delta State on Monday stalled the
proceedings at the Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba.

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tribunal failed to sit on arrival at the
venue designated for it, as the premises had been locked by the
workers, who were on strike.

The striking workers pasted notices around the courts stating that the action would last indefinitely in the state.

The Secretary of the tribunal, Deborah Musa, told NAN that the strike had paralysed activities in the tribunal.

“We arrived for
work this morning and found the whole place locked up and we saw the
notice that judiciary workers in the state are on an indefinite strike.

“I quickly rushed
to look for the leaders of the workers and for more than one hour I
begged them to come and open the premises so that we can evacuate our
files and other items,” she said.

Asked where she would put the files, Mrs Musa said, “I don’t really know where I am taking them to.

You know, we don’t know anywhere or anybody here. Maybe I will put them in my hotel room in the meantime.”

Harmonised salary

When contacted, the
Vice-Chairman of the Judiciary Workers Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), James
Onanowe, said, “the workers want to be included in the harmonised
public service salary.”

He said that the union resorted to strike when the state government failed to respond to its letter on the issue dated April 4.

He added that the
decision to embark on the strike was taken by the union’s leadership on
Friday, adding that “before we took that decision, we exhaustively
deliberated on the matter.”

Also in his own
comments, the Commissioner for Information, Oma Djebah, said he was not
aware of the workers’ strike and pleaded for time to “find out the real
issues”.

The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday dismissed the court action instituted
by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) challenging the electoral
victory of its presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan,
saying it is not afraid of the suit.

The national
publicity secretary of the PDP, Ahmed Alkali said this while speaking
to journalists after the party’s national working committee (NWC)
meeting in Abuja.

The CPC, had
earlier, filed a petition at the Court of Appeal challenging the
victory of Mr Jonathan in the April 16 presidential election. The party
asked the court to nullify elections in about 24 states.

The PDP spokesman,
who expressed surprise that the CPC flag bearer, Muhammadu Buhari
changed his mind after pledging not to go to court to challenge the
outcome of the presidential polls, said the party is not bothered about
the court action. While acknowledging that Mr Buhari had the right to
contest the result of the elections, Mr Alkali, said that Nigerians had
thought that after the polls the system would be allowed to stabilize,
and those who lost would accept defeat to enable the winners settle
down to work.

“In some states we
lost the governorship, senatorial and house of representatives election
and we have come out to accept defeat and therefore others sould have
shown magnanimity,” he said.

Constitutional rights

“It is the right of
anybody whose loses election. If you stop him, what will be the basis
for that?” Alkali said. “The only unfortunate thing is that the CPC
candidate promised initially that he won’t go to court. We don’t know
why he changed his mind. The party will prepare to meet him in court.
PDP has no reason to be afraid. Everybody is commending the elections
and the chairman of INEC for conducting transparent polls.”

Mr Alkali said the
PDP was excited over its victory in most of the states as well as its
winning majority of the seats in the National Assembly.

He praised Mr
Jonathan for ensuring transparent elections were held in the country.
Mr Alkali stressed that for the first time the country had elections
that were judged as transparent and open by both domestic and
international observers.

The PDP spokesman,
who lamented the party’s loss of five states – Zamfara, Oyo, Imo, Ogun
and Nasarawa – in the governorship election, said, “This is a sacrifice
that is high for the party. We won some seats in the National Assembly
though. For us, it was a huge loss. We also gained Kano.”

“We as a party have
demonstrated a lot of maturity because we did not instigate violence
rather we became victims,” Mr Alkali said. “You will recall the action
of our opponents after the presidential election. We commiserate with
the family of those who lost their lives and property.”

Biometrics to the rescue

Meanwhile, the CPC
yesterday claimed that transiting from a government to another via the
ballot box has always been problematic in the country.

Abubakar Malami,
its national legal adviser added that, “With every election, including
the last presidential election, the electorates continue to lose
confidence in the ability of the ballot box to express their will. This
is a dangerous trend that must not be allowed to continue, lest we find
our country sleepwalking into a disaster that we may not come out of.”

Mr Malami spoke
yesterday in Abuja at a briefing on the party’s petition which was
filed at the Presidential Election Tribunal.

He added that based
on lessons learned from past election tribunal cases, the party will
use scientific means to prove its case at the tribunal. “This case will
therefore depend mainly on the authentication and verification of the
fingerprints on the disputed ballot papers cast.”

“To the CPC, this
use of the Forensic/Biometric system based on INEC’s capturing of all
the 10 fingers of every voter is a novel idea that can help solve
forever the challenges of multiple voting and outright concoction of
results; two critical issues in our electoral malpractices,” Mr Malami
said. “Our present case in the tribunal is thus aimed at establishing
the truth and preventing future elections malpractices in our country’s
democratic experiment”.

Mr Malami
commiserated with the families of those who died and lost properties in
the post election violence that erupted in some northern states after
the declaration of the presidential elections results.

On the subject of the zoning of the positions of the senate
president, and the speaker of the house of representatives, the PDP
spokesman, Mr Alkali, refused to disclose the decision of the committee
on the sharing of the offices. He however said that the party will make
its decision public at the appropriate time.