Ribadu, Oguntade hail judiciary, seek quick judgment delivery

Justice George Oguntade seeks cancellation of regime of jurisdiction of courts from the statute books so as to hasten justice delivery in the country. Ribadu and Oguntade spoke at the commissioning of the new law office building belonging to Tayo Oyetibo & Company in Lagos. As the chairman of the occasion, Ribadu lauded  the court […]

Justice George Oguntade seeks cancellation of regime of jurisdiction of courts from the statute books so as to hasten justice delivery in the country.
Ribadu and Oguntade spoke at the commissioning of the new law office building belonging to Tayo Oyetibo & Company in Lagos.
As the chairman of the occasion, Ribadu lauded  the court being the bastion of justice through which his expulsion from the Nigeria Police was reversed and his AIG rank restored.
Ribadu also commended the contributions of prominent legal practitioners including Oyetibo (SAN), Femi Falana (SAN), Charles Musa and Ahmed Uwais, among others saying all of them played significant role in his anti-corruption crusade while presiding over the affairs of the anti-graft agency.
“I must commend the Nigerian judiciary for being the shade inside which our hope was restored. We don’t come across kind-hearted people like them every day,” Ribadu said.

The former EFCC boss said he considered himself “the luckiest person around, for the rare privileges and honour of benefiting from the legal expertise and moral support and solidarity of these outstanding lawyers and strong-willed believers in justice.”
On his part, Oguntade who spoke on the topic, “Social contract: Which way Nigeria?”, decried the level of congestion of cases in courts,  describing it as too high.
He accused Nigeria of imbibing too much of law technicalities of the English courts which have now become inhibitions to quick delivery of justice.
“The level of congestion in our courts is unacceptably high such that it takes 15 to 20 years to litigate from the high courts to the Supreme Court. We must encourage our courts to decide cases the way they see it and as honestly and fairly as possible. We must not be-labour them by all these inhibitions,” Oguntade said.
The eminent jurist further said the act of transferring judges from regions where they are only exposed to a particular kind of practice to regions where they are faced with complex commercial disputes contributes to the congestion as some of the judges find it difficult to adjudicate on such cases.
He also lamented the size and funding of the public sector, particularly the National Assembly, saying too much money is being wasted on the maintenance of “over bloated public service.”
Earlier in his address, the principal consultant of the firm, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) said the law office building was christened  “The Faith House” due to the circumstances surrounding its building. He noted that the firm is a multi-service law firm established in 1991 to provide legal services to a wide variety of clients ranging from large corporate organizations to private individuals with personal legal issues that require close attention and utmost confidentiality.