The Federal High Court Lagos on Tuesday, began decongestion and re-arrangement of court files, following resumption of court activities after the two-month-old strike by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that registrars of various courts were busy sorting out court files, while others were seen moving files to different court rooms.
NAN reports that JUSUN had on April 6, began an indefinite strike action seeking implementation of financial autonomy for the Judiciary.
The strike was however, called off on June 9, after settlement talks had been reached between the union and relevant stakeholders.
A NAN correspondent at the Federal High Court Lagos to review resumption, reports that registrars of the courts were all dutifully engaged in decongesting the court rooms and moving files around.
Meanwhile, in an interview with NAN, Deputy Chief Registrar (DCR) of the court, Mrs Clement Ende, expressed delight over the resumption.
”The reasons files are being moved around is because of the change in nomenclature and courtrooms. We have new judges,” she said.
NAN reports that few weeks before the JUSUN strike, some judges of the Federal High court were transferred to other jurisdictions.
As to when the courts will now fully commence sittings, the DCR, said:” that depends on the individual judges, as some of the new judges may want to first settle down and familiarise themselves with the courtrooms before beginning proceedings.
“So, let’s give them this week to look at their files as it is the first time they will be looking into the files and then give dates,” she said
According to her, the old judges may likely begin sitting by tomorrow, but the new ones may require a little more time, say by next week.
NAN reports that the courtroom placement for the new judges are Court one- Chief Judge Abdul Kafarati, Court two- Justice Ayokunle Faji, Court three- Justice A.L Allagboa, Court four- Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, Court five- Justice D.E Osiagor, and Cour six- Justice Nicholas Oweibo.
Others are; Court seven– Justice Y. Bogoro, Court Eight– Justice A. Aluko, Court Nine– Justice P.O Lifu, Court 10- Justice T.G Ringim, and Court 11 — Justice A.O Awogboro.
Justice Sule Hassan a former judge of the Lagos division, has been elevated to the Court of Appeal.
The newly transferred judges are more likely to commence full sittings in the Lagos division from next week.