PORT HARCOURT (Sundiata Post) - Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has called on all judicial officers and magistrates to adhere to the tenets of judicial independence, impartiality and transparency in their dispensation of justice to the people.
Addressing the 2016 Annual General Conference of Magistrates Association of Nigeria in Port Harcourt on Monday, Governor Wike urged judicial officers to play by the rules so that they can address issues of low quality and poor output in the system.
He noted: "As the magistracy continues to evolve in our nation, I subscribe to the view that the impetus for achieving effective justice delivery must substantially be from within the court system itself."
He called on the magistrates to use the annual general conference for collective self-introspection with a view to finding common approaches to overcoming the factors that delimit the magistracy in the country’s justice delivery system.
Governor Wike said: "I commend you for sustaining this annual meeting in spite of the daunting organizational challenges. I noticed that you have lined up a number of interesting topics for discussion, including on the one on practical realities of the doctrine of separation of powers under a democratic dispensation.
"We all know that that magistrates constitute the bedrock of the nation’s judicial system, where the majority of our people first come into contact with the nature and predisposition of the nation’s judicial system".
He stressed: "It is correct to assert that the quest for an efficient, effective and easily accessible trial and justice systems by any country is largely lost and won in the magistrates' courts."
Declaring the annual general conference open, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed represented by Justice Inyang Okoro said the Magistracy is the entry point to the judiciary.
He called on the magistrates to be competent and diligent as they discharge their judicial duties.
Rivers State Chief Judge, Justice Adama Iyayi-Lamikanra appealed to the magistrates to always work hard to dispense justice to all manners of people.
The conference is hosting Magistrates from the 36 states of the Federation.