Fire delays court hearings
The fire that
gutted the registry of the Eket High Court has affected the pace of
court sittings at the Eket Judicial Division in Akwa Ibom, with a judge
yesterday suspending hearing on a case to enable him re-admit six
documents that were lost in the fire incident.
An early morning
fire razed Eket High Court 2 in 2009, destroying vital documents
admitted by the court as evidence and exhibits. Many litigants who had
pending cases with relevant documents had to plead with the two judges
in the area to admit photocopies of such documents as exhibits. The
litigants incurred extra costs, as pending cases suffered numerous
adjournments owing to the extra time spent by both parties and their
counsel in scrutinising the photocopies of the documents.
“It is now that we
are feeling the impact of the fire that destroyed the court’s registry;
it is causing a lot of delays, and the situation is even worse for
those who did not keep copies of documents submitted to the court,” a
litigant stated.
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