There are at least over 128,000 cases pending before the divisions of the Federal High Court nationwide, the Chief Judge of the court, John Tsoho, has revealed.
He said with 75 judges currently on its bench, it means a judge on the average has over 1,700 cases to handle.
The chief judge disclosed this during the special court session to mark the commencement of the Federal High Court’s new 2021/2022 legal year in Abuja.
He acknowledged how loaded judge’s dockets had become since the COVID-19 pandemic was brought under control last year.
While giving a breakdown of cases on the court’s docket, the Chief Judge said, “The 2020/2021 legal year officially closed in July, 2021.
“Within that year, (i.e September 2020 – June, 2021), a total of 8, 309 cases were filed.
“There were 40,822 civil cases; 30, 197 criminal cases; 35563 motions and 20, 258 fundamental rights enforcement applications pending at the end of the Legal Year.”
“The total number of cases disposed of during that year was 6, 915 cases; with a total of 128, 234 pending at the end of the Legal Year,” he added.
He said after the improvement in the control of the coronavirus, “more and more cases were filed and the dockets of the judges became enormously loaded.”
Justice Tsoho, however, assured that with the appointment of new judges almost completed, “the problems would be tackled headlong.”
He resolved to enhance effective administration of justice, welfare of judges and staff.
The judge said despite the low budgetary allocations to the judiciary and the Federal High Court in particular, “the training and retraining of judges and staff have continued.”
