Second Wave Of Covid-19: Lagos CJ, Justice Alogba Restricts Number Of Persons To Attend Court

In view of the second wave of Covid-19 and as a precautionary measure, the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Hon. Justice Kazeem Alogba, has restricted the number of persons to be in attendance in courts.

The Chief Judge, in a circular made available to TheNigeriaLawyer with reference number LASJ/312455/Vol.1/24 dated the 15th day of January, 2021, and signed by the Director of Administration and Human Resources of the court, Mr. Sanusi Adewale, said, only those engaged in essential services are to report for work and will be allowed into the court premises.

The Circular states that in High Courts, only the presiding Judge and four (4) other staff, which include, the Secretary, Legal Registrar, Court Clerk and Recorder shall attend court.

As for Magistrate Courts, the attendance is restricted to only the Chief Magistrate on grade level 15 and above, together with their legal registrars and court clerks.

The Chief Registrar and Deputy Chief Registrar, however, are expected to be in attendance throughout the week, with the chief registrar having two support staff and the deputy having the secretary and additional staff on a rotational basis.

“All Deputy Chief Registrars (DCRs), Heads of Departments (HoDs), Sectional and Unit Heads (HOUs) would be at work.” the circular reads in part

Furthermore, Heads of Litigation, Probate, and Deputy Sheriff Sections, are to resume work along with their ACRs and two (2) staff members to be in attendance twice a week while ACRs outside the Ikeja and Lagos divisions are required to work with only one sheriff corp on daily basis.

The appellate section of the work will operate with the ACRs and 2 officers weekly while the Heads of Valuation, Budget & Planning, Public Affairs, Internal Audit, as well as the Procurement Units will have a staff with them daily on a rotational basis, that of the fast track section of the court will have two officers on a daily basis.

The director of accounts, the chief accountant and two (rotational) staff are expected to also be in attendance at the

Finance & Accounts Department of the court. The Admin & HR department will have its responsibilities rotated daily from amongst the heads of its units together with an officer in attendance, whereas the director of the department will daily attend to work with two officers.

The circular further notes that “Courts are to sit only thrice in a week, between Monday to Thursday at the discretion of the Hon. Judges and the and the Chief Magistrates respectively.

It added that “As part of of the addendum to this circular, it should be noted that only officers on duty for a particular day will be allowed into the premises with strict adherence to the Covid protocol as prescribed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Co [NCDC] along with the official pass.”