By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The Federal High Court Lagos Nigeria which usually bubbles with activities of court proceedings, presence of lawyers and litigants, witnessed very low activities and movements on Tuesday due to the scourge of coronavirus pandemic.
TheNiche noticed that activities within the court premises were at its lowest ebb on Tuesday as most judges did not sit. The only two court’s that sat did not allow more than 20 persons inside the court. Most workers were asked to leave the court room in order to decongest the court.
The only people allowed to stay inside the court were mainly litigants and their counsel as well as few court registrars and the electronic recorder/stenographer.
The Admin Judge, Federal High Court, Lagos Division, Justice Mohammed Liman, later in the day addressed the Federal High Court staff on the ugly development.
Addressing the workers, the Admin Judge directed that judiciary workers from levels 1 to 12 should stay at home with effect from tomorrow Wednesday 25th of March for a period of 14 days in the first instance, thereafter the situation will determine whether the stay-at-home would be extended or not.
Justice Liman said the direction to stay at home is in compliance of the Federal Government order which was further amplified by the Chief Justice of Nigeria through a circular.
“There will be no regular court sittings, however urgent cases such as Ex-parte applications, fundamental rights and admiralty cases will be entertained during the period.
“The number of court registrars coming to work will be reduced to about two and a stenographer in each court while only the Registry and Cash/Finance departments will be operational during the period. Attendance of workers that remain will be rotational on the basis of on duty today and off the next day.
He also instructed the security team to deny access to anybody, including lawyers and litigants, except that such a person has an appointment which must be done immediately he enters the court premises and leaves as quickly as possible.
The security must be convinced of the importance of the issue for which the person is coming for, before allowing access to anybody.
On transportation of workers, the Judge said that a special arrangements will be made to transport workers without overcrowding in the buses, adding that Sectional heads would meet with the Deputy Chief Registrar ( DCR ) to work out modalities that will ensure that workers are not many in each of the staff buses for various routes.
He finally advised court workers to be conscious of their health and take all precautionary measures to avoid being infected.
