Reduction Of Judges Impedes Our Effectiveness – ECOWAS Court

The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice has decried the reduction
of the number of judges attached to the court from seven to
five.

The President of the court, Justice Edward Amoaka Asante made
this disclosure on Wednesday at the 10thJudicial Retreat of the
court at Goshen City in Nasarawa State.

He said the reduction, alongside the delay in the translation of
court processes into the working languages of the court, impede the
effectiveness of the court. The sub-regional body with 15-member
states, has English, French and Portuguese as official
languages.

“This is particularly poignant with the increased number of
cases on the court’s docket, currently at 107 pending cases, a
number that is expected to increase based on the trend,” he
said.

Continuing, Asante said the court decided 318 cases comprising
190 judgments, 105 rulings, 18 revision judgments and five advisory
opinions between April 2004 and October 2018.

Also speaking, the Chief Registrar of the court, Tony
Anene-Maidoh explained that the objective of the four-days retreat
was to introduce the new members and judges and executive
assistants to the jurisprudence of the court as developed by former
members between 2003 and 2018.

The new judges of the court are: the president, Edward Amoako
Asante (Ghana); vice president, Gberi-Be Ouattara (Cote d’Ivoire);
members- Dupe Atoki (Nigeria); Keikura Bangura (Sierra Leone) and
Silva Moreira Costa (Cape Verde).