From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Not all pigs in all honesty would be comfortable having the magistrate’s court in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State as their abode. So, if pigs could reject such a place, it would certainly be an aberration for humans to have anything to do with it. It gives one goose pimples when it is realised that the pigsty of a courtroom is where justice is dispensed to a people that populates one of the largest local government areas in the country.
The Bende magistrate’s court is as old as the local government area itself, having evolved from the colonial era. Said to have been built in the early 1900s by the British colonial masters, successive administrations in the state have failed to rehabilitate it.
Recently, this reporter visited the court building in Bende and what he saw was a complete eyesore. In fact, it was unbelievable that human beings still used the building: Part of the building had collapsed, exposing the mud bricks used in erecting the court house. With the collapsed wall, case files, documents and other property were at the mercy of hoodlums who had unfettered access to the courtroom.
It could only take individuals with hearts made of steel to work in such an environment. Apart from the filthiness and the fallen wall, parts of the roof have been blown off, while the ceiling is carving in. In fact, the entire foundation of the building has been affected and is now defective.
Despite the condition of the court building, litigants and lawyers from far and wide troop to the court for for justice.
A worker in the court, who spoke to the reporter on the condition of anonymity for fear of being victimized, said they still had to come to work every day despite the horrifying condition of the building. He added that each day they were work, they prayed the building would not collapse on them.
He said: “Each day we come to work, we have our hearts in our mouths, if we see the condition of the court building. We pray daily that the building does not collapse on us while in office. With such an environment, we hardly concentrate because of fear of the unknown.
“It is this fear that informs our decision to close for work immediately the magistrate entertains the last matter for the day. Even if the last matter for the day is heard by 11am or 12 noon, we close work for the day because nobody will risk his or her life by remaining in the building till the actual time for close of work.”
Another worker, who also did not want his name mentioned, said the magistrate, who he refused to name, sits in the court out of sheer patriotism.
“It is not every magistrate that will agree to sit in this type of courtroom; anyone that is sitting here is just doing that out of his love for the job. There is no light (power), no security and, above all, in a building that is caving in, that person must have passion for his job.
“We come to work every day and our prayers would be that we go back alive because the magistrate’s court, built by the colonial masters, is now a death trap. Nobody knows the day it will go down.
“Part of it has gone down already and the ceiling is seriously carving in, nobody knows when the entire building will collapse, but the prayer of every staff is, let it not happen when we are in the office.
“We have made several appeals to Abia State government concerning the very bad nature of the magistrate’s court building in Bende, but nothing has been done. Maybe they are waiting for the day the entire building will collapse on the workers before they come to do something.
“Nobody is talking about the car park. What is our major concern is for the state government to come and build another magistrate’s court for Bende.
“Rehabilitation of the existing one is out of it here as there’s nothing to rehabilitate. This was a building erected by the colonial masters in the 1900s with red mud blocks. In other words, what serves presently as Bende magistrate’s court is a mud house covered with zinc (sheets) and there is no way one would rehabilitate a mud house in this era. Government should build a modern and befitting magistrate’s court for Bende,” he said.
It is not only workers of the court that are not happy with the state of the building. A female worker in an office adjacent to the court, who gave her as Matilda Igwe, said she feels ashamed each time she sees prominent lawyers and litigants coming to the court.
“Bende is the headquarters of old Bende, which included Umuahia at a point in time, and it is degrading for such a known place to have as its magistrate’s court what is on ground today. It is shameful.
“There was a celebrated case that was heard in the court recently. The courtroom, of course, not having enough seats, many who came to court that day had to stay outside, under the sun,” Igwe said.
For a native of Bende who gave her name as Nma, the condition of the magistrate’s court was not giving anybody in town joy: “That court was built by the colonial masters. I don’t think there is anybody still alive in Bende today when it was built. My uncle who is 75 this year said he does not know when it was built and you should know what that means.
“It is unfortunate that the magistrate’s court, which is the only one in Bende town, has been left in that condition and, if nothing is urgently done, before the end of the rainy season, anything can happen. I’m not a doomsday prophet, but the building might go down.
“But if it will take wind storm pulling down the dilapidated building for government to erect a modern court complex for Bende, I think some of us will pray for that, only that it should not happen when workers are around.”
Nma said it was appalling that a place where justice was supposed to be dispensed could be left in such a horrible state, stressing that workers in the court would definitely not give their all under such debilitating circumstances.
She, therefore, appealed to the state government to do something urgently to deal with the situation.
Immediate past chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Umuahia branch, Nnamdi Eluwa, said the state of the magistrate’s court in Bende and some other courts in the state was not making the NBA happy.
He gave an instance when a judge was sitting somewhere in Isiala Ngwa and the ceiling caved in and everybody, including the judge, had to run for dear life, thinking it was a bomb blast.
He said there have been cases where judges had to use their personal money to run their offices, including providing generating sets to light up their chambers and courtrooms.
On whether NBA could not assist in rehabilitating some of the courts, Eluwa said it was not the responsibility of the body to rehabilitate courts, but that of the state government and called on the government to do the needful.
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Abia State, could not be reached for comments, but a senior staff of ministry who did not want his name mentioned said government would soon tackle problems facing courts in the state.