Obono-Obla Flays Nigerian Bailiffs, Calls On The Judiciary To Upgrade Bailiff Department.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution and Chairman Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, has maintained that failure of court bailiffs to carry out their duties in serving court process will not only prevent the matter from going on but will frustrate the whole process. According to him “Billion of Naira collected as fees/bribes by Court bailiffs from litigants and lawyers. As the clamor for reform or change in the judicial branch of government intensify one of the areas that there is dire need for change is the service of court processes which is usually handled by the Bailiff Department. The bailiff department is entrusted with the responsibility for effecting service of court processes or documents such as Writ of summons, originating summons, originating motion, motions, petitions and hearing notices. The writ of summons, originating summons, originating motions or petitions are the methods through which actions are commenced in our court system.” “It is well established that service of any court process on the other way is a fundamental requirement of our adjudicatory process. It follows that before a court is seized of jurisdiction to hear a case or matter there must be evidence that the other party was served with a court process filed an adversary otherwise the court will decline jurisdiction to hear such matter” “This is one area that all the problems of delays in quick hearing and determination of court matters that has constantly plagued the judicial system starts. Where the bailiff makes an error when he is serving a party the entire adjudicatory process becomes problematic and will likely end up totally messed. Bearing this mind the bailiffs have since realize their importance in the adjudicatory process and their role to the extent that they can frustrate a matter from going by deliberately refusing to serve a process on the other party or deliberating messing up the affidavit of proof of service which they are mandatorily required to file and put in the Court file to show evidence that the process was served on the other party,” he added. Speaking further Mr Obono-obla, said “ it is as a result of the failure of the judicial branch to upgrade the bailiff department in terms of capacity building , training , conditions of service over the years the department remains mired in antiquity. So bailiff take advantage of litigants who desire their processes to be serve on their adversary.” “Equally bailiff take advantage of lawyers who are desirous that processes they filed on behalf of their clients are promptly served so that their cases are not stalled. Bailiffs see their work as an extortionist thing” According to the Senior Special Assistant, “To serve a court process on the other side, bailiffs demand from between twenty to 200000 Naira from litigants and lawyers alike. If you fail to pay your processes or papers will be left unserved and unattended to. If this happens the likely of your case going on is in jeopardy. Even to serve a motion or a hearing notice on a matter that is ongoing bailiffs demand on collect money from lawyers and litigants alike.” “Sometimes bailiff collect money but intentionally bungle Service on the other side. Most often bailiff collect bribe from those they are directed to serve and claim they cannot access them. The bailiff operates with such impunity because nobody holds them to account.” “I will conservatively estimate that every year from the Magistrate Court level ; Area Court; Customary Court /Sharia, State High Court, High Court of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; Federal High Court ; National Industrial Court ; Court of Appeal and Supreme Court more than N10 billion is collected by bailiffs across the Federation from litigants and lawyers as fees /bribes for service of summons, originating summons , motions , briefs of arguments and hearing notices. If there is better organization this huge revenue would have accrued to governments both at the States and Federal tiers . Such huge revenue would have gone a run away in addressing the infrastructural deficit grappling and confronting the judicial arm of government,” he stated. “My surprise is that over the years the judicial branch has not seen it fit to reform the bailiff department so that litigants would have value from the judicial system. Time has indeed come for total overhaul of the judicial branch of government more than ever before.” He also added that “he is surprise that lawyers bury their heads inside the ground like the ostrich on all the extortionate racketeering schemes and corruption enterprise going on in the bailiff sections of the court system over the years which contributes substantially and fundamentally to the chaotic court system we have been saddled with in our dear country. “The appellate section of our courts is also a study in extortion and corruption.” According to Mr Obono-Obla, “To prepare Appeal records a litigant may be compelled to cough out from N400,000 to N2 million depending on the complexity and importance of a matter. The litigation process has become so expensive that sooner or later that the doors of our courts will be shut against the poor.” The abuse and impunity in the bailiff sections of our court system surely gives credence to the position taken by the National Bureau of Statistics that the judiciary and the police are the most corrupt public institutions in the country.”]]>