Nnamdi Felix / Abuja

Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, has launched the computerization of the Nigerian Court System to fast track ‎justice administration and delivery.

The launch took place on Monday at the Supreme Court complex in Abuja.

She noted that ‎the objective of the court automation project is to improve court efficiency, access to justice and transparency in the justice delivery process.

The project is calculated to vigorously improve public trust and confidence in the nation’s judicial system.

“What we are witnessing today is the solid foundation for tomorrow’s fully automated court. Indeed, this aligns with the vision of transforming ‎from the current predominantly manual court processes and its attendant weaknesses to technological solution tailor-made for the Nigerian judiciary”.

Under the project tagged the ‘Nigeria Case Management System’, lawyers will be able to file and serve their cases online through an authenticated email system.

When fully operational, the system would remove the delay occasioned by lawyers denying services of court processes on them.

The CJN also noted that although the project would take time, patience ‎and determination to become fully operational, but that the gains would compensate for the delay.

‎Also speaking at event, the chairman of the Judicial Information Technology Policy Committee; JITPOCOM, and Chief Judge of Borno State, Justice Kashim Zannah, said the automation would ease the burden of advocacy and adjudication, and generally improve administration of justice in the country.

The Judicial Information Technology Policy Committee ‎was inaugurated by former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher on January 30th, 2012 due to concern with the slow and tedious dispensation of justice and the attendant enormous backlog of cases.

The project aims at an integrated ‎system for the Nigerian judiciary, such that cases would seamless move from the trial court to the apex court, is being implemented in phases and running in 16 pilot sites for now, which include the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal (Abuja and Lagos Divisions), the Federal High Court (Abuja and Lagos Divisions), the National Industrial Court (Abuja and Lagos Divisions), the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory as well as the high courts of Bayelsa, Borno, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kogi and Lagos states and the National Judicial Council.