By Doris Ferdinand
A bill seeking to alter the 1999 constitution,to make all appeals to the supreme Court to be by leave in order to reduce workload on the court suffers set back at plenary today.
leading the debate, Hon Onofiok Luke, PDP-Akwa-Ibom State, said that the workload in the Apex court is cumbersome noting that it has made litigation difficult.
“The Supreme Court is overburdened. The Constitution grants unlimited jurisdiction on the court to handle all cases and gives litigants the unfettered right in most cases to approach the court on any issue.
“Some litigants and lawyers have exploited this loophole and filed all manner of undeserving and unmerited cases and interlocutory applications before the court.
“This has bogged down the operations and efficiency of the court and in turn slowed justice administration and delivery in the country. Because of this, germane disputes requiring the serious and expeditious attention of the Court do not receive same.
“There are many economic, social and political effects of slow justice delivery in Nigeria as occasioned by the overburdening of the Court. Business entrepreneurs, investors, organisations and governments have their financial or social fate hanged in the balance because of the long duration it takes the Court to render decisions on disputes.” Luke added.
“The situation is not supposed to be so; it is not all appeals that should travel to the Court. The Supreme Court supposed to hand down important decisions on certain cases and the lower courts will follow and apply the decisions in similar cases.
“It is in this vein that this constitutional alteration is proposed to limit appeals to the Supreme Court.
“All appeals are to reach the court through leave, that is, the court is to determine by way of application whether a particular case deserves its attention.
“It needs to be stated that litigants still have the right to approach the court but the court will however review their cases and decide whether to hear them.
“Mechanisms have been set in place within this constitutional proposal to ensure that the process is not abused or genuine cases are not reviewed down.” Luke said.
Some lawmakers however expressed their misgivings on certain clause of the bill noting that there are alternative ways of achieving quality and trust worthy courts rather than limiting appeals to Supreme Court.
contributing to the debate, Hon. Uzoma Abonta, PDP-Abia State said the appropriate committee should look into the bill very closely before passing it.
Hon Tobi Okechukwu, PDP-Enugu State said the bill is timely however he suggested for other better options to achieve the purpose. “We need to look at other alternatives in ensuring this efficiency.”
The bill was put to voice vote and stepped down.
