CJ warns lawyers on conflicting judgments

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim N. Auta has cautioned members of the bar to be “careful in filing cases on issues that are pending before other courts”. Auta made this remark yesterday at the special court session for the commencement of the Federal High Court 2016/2017 legal year. He gave […]

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim N. Auta has cautioned members of the bar to be “careful in filing cases on issues that are pending before other courts”.
Auta made this remark yesterday at the special court session for the commencement of the Federal High Court 2016/2017 legal year. He gave this caution while responding to remarks on the issue of conflicting court judgments that bedeviled the judiciary at the tail end of the 2015/2016 legal year.
He noted that lawyers are to blame for the conflicting judgments by their acts of going ahead to file suits before courts of coordinate jurisdiction even when such matters are still pending before another court of equal jurisdiction.
Auta said henceforth stringent actions will be taken against such incidence to avert repeat. “We are not going to take this at our forthcoming judges’ conference. It is something we should try to avoid”, he said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Judge also thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for approving more judges for the courts. He said that 13,864 of the 16,680 cases filed within the period of September, 2015 and June, 2016 have already been successfully treated.