Judges Issuing Conflicting Orders Selfish — Katsina CJ

The Chief Judge of Katsina State Justice Musa Danladi Abubakar has accused judges issuing conflicting orders and judgments of being driven by selfishness and unethical mind-sets.

Abubakar told The Nation, Not TheNigeriaLawyer the issue of territorial and court jurisdiction is already settled in law, adding that those who violate such laws should face the music.

According to him: ’’The law has settled that, we all know that territorial jurisdiction matters and court of jurisdiction cannot overrule each other and now they are facing the music, those who are doing it must face justice, justice must not only be done but must been seen to be done’’.

‘’I think its selfishness, it’s unethical but you know if you do something like that, you are ready to face the consequences.

“We have high ethics in the judiciary and work hand in hand in everything we do, every judge knows the standard and code of conduct’’.

On the possible causes of slow pace of justice delivery, he blamed it on poor level of investigation by the Police and other security operatives to precipitate trials.

He said: “Because of the inadequacy of logistics, the police cannot themselves go round to carry out investigations for one reason or the other.

“It’s embarrassing when a person is a victim of crime and he has to pay the police in order to be investigated.

‘’And this is the reality that is going on that is why we came up with the idea of community conflict resolution centres so that it can take care of minor disputes and conflicts away, out of the hand of the police, let them face the more serious crimes and offences’’.

On the lack of personnel in the Judiciary required to handle cases and the needs for the appointment of more judges, he said the enormous workload awaiting the attention of judges, requires additional hands.