Lawmakers Okay 120 judges For Lagos

The Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the High
Court (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which seeks to increase the number of
high court judges in the state to 120.

The state, with a population of over 20 million people,
currently has 59 judges.

The House of Assembly, according to a statement on Tuesday,
adopted as its resolution the recommendations in the High Court
(Amendment) Bill, 2018, which was presented by the House Committee
on Judiciary, Public Petition, Human Rights and LASIEC.

The committee’s chairman, Tunde Braimoh, while presenting the
report to the House, said, “The need to amend the law was borne out
of the quest to increase the number of judges in Lagos State.”

Braimoh explained that increasing the number of high court
judges in the state would translate to “quick dispensation of
justice and improve the administration of criminal and civil
proceedings for easy access to justice delivery to the people of
the state.’’

The Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, added that increasing the number
of judges to 120 would help to de-congest prisons, which were
mostly populated by awaiting-trial inmates.

He said the inmates’ cases dragged in court due to the large
number of cases before the limited number of judges.