Justice delivery - ‘Kaduna needs Family Courts’

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has said High Court Judges were overworked, and have a workload of over 200 cases, which delays justice and encouraging impunity.

El Rufai stated this in Kaduna when he played host to officials of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) who paid him an advocacy visit for the establishment of Family Court in Kaduna State in order to fast track the prosecution of Gender-Based Violence.

El Rufai said that his administration had sought for both Family Courts and Small Disputes Courts, where minor disputes can be easily resolved without recourse to legal procedures so that the load on our justice system will be reduced.

The governor regretted that rape and Gender-Based Violence had become an epidemic as incidences rise. He said he knew the role FIDA had played to ameliorate the problem.

“We are also working to have more judges in the state. I think that Kaduna state needs 20 more high court judges. We put in a request to the National Judicial Council but we are not getting the appropriate response; we got approval for only four.”

The governor said that the state even offered to pay the salaries of these judges that the government requested for because “our high court judges are overworked.’’

El Rufai said the average workload of a high court judge in Kaduna is over 200 cases. ‘’No human being can handle that efficiently. It is delaying justice and also encouraging impunity.”

The governor revealed that people who were taken to court for the violence that took place in 2016 are yet to be convicted. ‘’And that is why we had another outbreak recently. If people are being convicted, then it will send a lesson.’’

Governor El Rufai thanked FIDA for the visit and promised the government will do whatever it can to support the association in order to make it more effective.