FCT CJ Bemoans Shortage of Courtrooms for Magistrates

The Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf, has bemoaned the shortage of some infrastructural facilities in the nation’s capital Judiciary, especially courtrooms for Magistrates.

Speaking at the opening of its 2023/2024 Legal Year, event on Monday in Abuja, Baba-Yusuf observed that despite the fact that the FCT High Court has a total complement of 58 Judges, “the courts are being overstretched to its fullest elastic capacity in terms of caseload”. According to him, this situation has a way of impacting on justice delivery, as well as the wellbeing of judicial officers in the FCT.

He however, expressed hope that with support from stakeholders in the Justice sector as well as relevant authorities, the challenge can be surmounted.

“As I remarked in my speech during the 2022/2023 legal year ceremony, the work on Zone 5 Court Complex is progressing steadily. It is hoped that by the time the complex is completed, it will be able to accommodate about seven to eight court rooms to further ease our infrastructural challenges. 

“Connected to this also, is the dearth of court rooms for the Magistrates. Currently, some of our Magistrates are sharing court rooms”, he said just as he added that: “We will strive in the course of the year, to open new court rooms to ensure that each of them functions maximally”. 

He thanked the Federal Capital Territory Administration for donating the premises that is currently housing the Garki Division of the High Court for their operations, and expressed hope that a similar intervention in respect of the Magistracy would be provided in the new legal year.

Notwithstanding the challenges, the FCT High Court CJ observed that the court performed excellently in the outgoing year, going by the number of cases completed.

He gave assurance that the Judiciary will continue to perform it’s primary duty in hearing cases in different parts of the territory, as demanded by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.