• Proceeds on annual vacation July 17
The Court of Appeal has delivered 232 judgments within two weeks as it prepares to embark on its annual vacation on July 17, 2017.
The judgments, delivered by various divisions of the appellate court were in a bid to clear the backlog of appeals pending before the court.
A statement by the Media Officer of the Court of Appeal, Sa’adatu Kachalla explained that this feat was achieved due to the setting up of five task forces by the President of the Court, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa.
The task forces, according to the statement, were set up to ensure back log of pending appeals before various divisions of the court were disposed of expeditiously.
In the letter of posting signed by Justice Bulkachuwa, the task forces were given two weeks to move round to identifiable division and preside over pending appeals.
The task forces comprised of justices from less busy divisions like Makurdi, Ilorin, Yola, Ekiti and Sokoto to reduce the workload in Lagos, Benin, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Abuja which are busier divisions. However, at the expiry of the set time, 232 cases were disposed off.
In a document obtained in Abuja, the breakdown of the figure showed that in Lagos Division, the special task force from the Makurdi Division delivered 85 judgments, while the special task force from Ilorin Division which sat in Benin Division delivered 57 judgments.
The task force from Ekiti which sat in Enugu Division delivered 38 judgments.
Justices of Sokoto Division on a rescue mission to Abuja Division during this period gave judgments in 31 appeals and struck out two matters while the justices of Yola Division trashed out 21 pending appeals in Port Harcourt Division.
