Insecurity: Niger Magistrate Courts To Relocate Due To Bandits Attacks
Some local councils of Niger State have been forced to relocate their magistrates courts to the High Court complex in Minna, the state capital, due to bandits’ attacks..
T.
It was learnt that the decision to relocate the courts was as a result of incessant armed bandits’ attacks in their areas of jurisdiction.
The report also said that an overseeing High Court Judge of Kuta, Justice Mohammed Adishetu Mohammed, has also relocated to Minna.
Furthermore, some Sharia Court judges in the effected areas have also deserted their courts for fear of being kidnapped by the bandits.
Recall that a Sharia Court Judge of Erena in Shiroro was abducted last year, while heavily armed gunmen attempted to invade a Magistrate Court in Mariga in May, this year, but were repelled by community vigilante group and local hunters.
A female Magistrate, who was to report to her court in Munya Local Council, narrowly escaped abduction along with her registrar along Minna–Gwada road on May 17, 2022.
The ugly trend has already crippled the speedy administration of justice in the state, as the fate of most litigants of pending cases in the courts hang in the balance.
The Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Minna branch, Abdulkadir Waziri, in an interview, affirmed that the trend is really affected the effective administration of justice in the affected areas.
According to him, the purpose of creating those courts was for the community to get access to justice, which is their constitutional right, “and the security in these communities have already been eroded by these terrorist groups.”
0
0
