The Management of the High Court of the FCT has replied Mr.
Hameed Ajibola Jimoh Esq., over an article written
against it titled: ”Public Notice of Suspected
Corruption In The High Court of FCT-Abuja’s Administration And
Management”.
In the reply signed by the Senior Special Assistant (Special
Duties) to the Chief Registrar, High Court of the FCT, Abuja, and
made available to TheNigerialawyer (TNL), the management debunked
the allegations made by Mr. Jimoh, claiming that his allegations
were built on falsehood.
The management, among others, advised Mr. Jimoh to desist from
the supposed futile attempts at dragging the untainted image of the
High Court in the mud, adding that should he continue in the
repeated mischievous onslaught against the court, they are going to
take all possible legal means to call him to order.
See Reply:
Re: “Public Notice of Suspected
Corruption in the High Court of the FCT-Abuja’s Administration and
Management”:
A CLARIFICATION BY THE HIGH COURT OF THE FCT,
ABUJA
The attention of the High Court of the
Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, has been drawn to
TheNigeriLawyer publication made on 16 January,
2019 by one Hameed Ajibola Jimoh, captioned:
“Public
Notice of Suspected Corruption in the High Court of the FCT-Abuja’s
Administration and Management”.[1]
As a matter of policy, the High Court of the FCT, Abuja being
aware of its solemn duty in dispensing justice to all, irrespective
of status, does not join issues with members of the public,
especially when such issues are founded on baseless allegations
such as the one under reference. But for the fact that there is the
need to put things in their proper perspectives, added to the fact
that this character, Hameed Ajibola
Jimoh, has, over a long period of time, consistently
made himself a peddler of malicious falsehood, particularly against
the management of the High Court of the FCT, Abuja, we would have
had no need for this publication. It is often said that a lie told
often enough, when not rebutted, may be seen as the truth. Mr.
Jimoh, a serial blackmailer, has on several occasions, made
publications online, disparaging the High Court of the FCT, Abuja.
It will be recalled that he, on April 12, 2018, made a publication
captioned: “The Disappointing Conducts Of Some Of The Fct
High Court’s Staff: A Clarion Call On The FCT High Court’s Chief
Judge For Immediate Preemptive Measures”. His grouse in
the said publication being as result of an altercation he had with
one of the court staff over service of process. He went online to
make so much disparaging remarks about the High Court of the FCT,
and thereon directed the Honourable Chief Judge to employ more
staff, since according to him; each court has about one or two
Bailiffs that serve court processes. If not for ignorance of the
workings of court, Mr. Jimoh would not expect the Court to employ
one Bailiff per case, since a Bailiff can conveniently serve over
twenty (20) processes in a day within the FCT, where the average
number of cases daily assigned to any court in the FCT, does not
exceed a maximum of five (5).
Also, in 2018, Mr. Jimoh wrote two petitions against the
management of the High Court of the FCT, Abuja, to the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). Precisely,
on the 5th day of November, 2018, he wrote a
petition to the EFCC, captioned: “PETITION AGAINST THE
MANAGEMENT OF THE HIGH COURT OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY-ABUJA
AND YWC TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED PURSUANT TO THE SECTION 6 AND OTHER
ENABLING PROVISIONS OF THE ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION
ACT, 2004.”
Not done with the above, Mr. Jimoh, on the
8th of November, 2018, wrote another petition to
the ICPC captioned: “PETITION AGAINST THE MANAGEMENT OF THE
HIGH COURT OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY-ABUJA AND YWC
TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE INDEPENDENT
CORRUPT PRACTICES AND OTHER RELATED OFFENCES ACT
(ICPC)”.
In both petitions, Mr. Jimoh made spurious and unsubstantiated
allegations based on his fertile imagination and profound ignorance
of the Case Management Platform established in the interest of all
court users in the FCT Judiciary, Abuja.
It is against this background of series of ceaseless and
unabated malicious misinformation being concocted and fed members
of the public by this Jimoh character that has necessitated the
need for this clarification, not that it will make him stop his
campaign of calumny which has become his stock in trade, but for
the duty we owe members of the public as the custodians of truth,
equity and justice.
The truth of the matter is that, the High Court of the FCT,
Abuja, in line with its policy of providing an efficient and
effective justice administration within the FCT, Abuja, sometime in
2013, met with all stakeholders of the justice system and agreed to
implement a modernized court case management system that will make
justice more accessible to all court users within the FCT. As a
result of this meeting in which all relevant stakeholders in the
justice administration system participated in, it was generally
agreed on the need for the High Court of the FCT, Abuja, to
introduce the E-Filing system, where lawyers can file matters
online from the comfort of their offices and homes, without the
need to be physically present in Court. As laudable as this project
is, yet some lawyers complained of lack of requisite internet
facilities to file matters electronically. Consequently, it was
resolved, after a background study of other jurisdictions like
Malaysia, Singapore and the United States of America, that the best
approach was to take the burden off the lawyers by assisting them
with the digitization process, hence the introduction of the
Courts’ Case Management System (CCMS) project, to cater for an
electronic archive and data backup for all cases/matters filed in
the Court
As a result of the above understanding, a private company with
the requisite skill in this field, YWC Technologies Limited was
appointed as the service provider to develop a functional Court
Case Management System, deploy and integrate the Court’s software
application on the dedicated server, provide maintenance support,
as well as devise a seamless means for knowledge transfer to staff
of the Court. Meanwhile, with the introduction of the CCMS, it was
agreed by all stakeholders that lawyers can, for the time being,
file their processes manually but drop an extra copy for
digitization by the Court, on payment on 10% of the filing fee,
which goes to the Consultants, YWC Technologies, who will, in turn
feed such data into a central data storage facility, pending such a
time that the E-Filing system will fully come in place. With the
CCMS, all processes filed into the Court’s Central Registry since
the 22nd day of August, 2016, are saved on the
Court’s Database.
On the face of every of such court process, is written the
assessment that clearly indicates 10% for “CCMS”.
This fact can be attested to by a cursory glance at any of our
Court’s processes filed at the Central Registry. If Mr. Jimoh has
filed any process in our Court within this period, he will equally
attest to this fact.
Similarly, an Affidavit Module was also created under the CCMS
platform. The aim is to capture all depositions in every affidavit
made in the Courts of the FCT, Abuja. This is in line with global
best practices of ensuring that depositions from the courts are
neither forged nor cloned, and can be verified from a Court’s
database.
It is important to state here that all payments in respect of
any court process filed are made through the bank, which issues
such persons a teller with which they are in turn issued with
receipts to enable them file their processes. The High Court of the
FCT, Abuja, DOES NOT, AND HAS NEVER COLLECTED
CASH from any court user. All monies and court fees
due the government are paid into the banks and are directly
remitted into the Federal Government’s account under the Single
Treasury Account (TSA) system currently in operation. Also, the
percentage due to the Consultant is paid directly into the
Consultant’s account.
No member of the management of the High Court of the FCT, Abuja,
has any relationship, whatsoever with YWC technologies Limited;
none is a Director in the company, and none has any vested interest
in the company.
Mr. Jimoh, in one of his spurious allegations in his publication
of 16thJanuary, 2018, against the High Court of the FCT,
Abuja, stated that he was informed that his letter to the Court
requesting for certain information “could no longer be
traced”. He never stated who informed him that the said
letter could no longer be traced, yet, in the said publication, he
admitted this much in respect of his application, “…
the application for the Certified True Copy was received by the
Chief Registrar’s Office on
the 23rd day of October,
2018. After submission, the application was referred to the
Director Litigation’s office of the Court on the
18th of November, 2018. Then, it was referred to
the Head of Process of the Court on the 13th day of
November, 2018.
After that, I went to confirm the status, the record
showed that the application had been referred back to the Director
Litigation, precisely in the Litigation’s registry on the
19th day of November, 2018. Then from the
Litigation Registry’s record, it was discovered that the
application has been moved back to the Chief Registrar’s office on
the 22nd day of November, 2018.”
From the above account by Mr. Jimoh, contrary to his
insinuations in the said publication, his application was given
prompt attention, just like all others issues that come daily
before the Office of the Chief Registrar. The High Court of the
FCT, Abuja, is not a one man enterprise; it is a large public
institution, with various specialised departments that handle
related issues referred to them. In his application, Mr. Jimoh
requested for a potpourri of information, some of which were
already within his knowledge; some others needed some length of
time to retrieve, while some bordered on the absurd.
In his application, Mr. Jimoh requested for information on the
total amount generated by the Consultant, from
22nd August, 2016, till date; providing such
information, ordinarily lies within the purview of the Consultant
and the Bank, which obviously requires time and patience, the
latter of which Mr. Jimoh does seem to have been sparsely endowed
with.
Here is a man who has written several petitions against YWC
Technologies Ltd., and boasted on how he has conducted search on
the company at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), turning
around to apply to the High Court to avail him of the Certified
True Copy of the name YWC Technologies Ltd., as if the company was
registered by the High Court, and not the CAC. If this is not plain
mischief by a character that parades as a lawyer, one wonders what
the real motive of this young man is.
The truth of the matter is that no one informed Mr. Jimoh that
his application was missing, that is why he has failed to mention
any name. His application was never missing. No one has ever
complained that any document sent to the Office of the Chief
Registrar has been missing. Movements of files and processes within
the High Court are well documented, and easily traceable. Cases are
filed on daily basis, and such case files moved from one relevant
office or the other until they finally get to their assigned
courts, without any complaint from any litigant. He admitted this
seamless movement of files from the excerpts of his publication
reproduced above. The reply to his application has since been ready
in the office of the Chief Registrar, but instead of going to the
office to collect same, he chose to revel in his usual campaign of
calumny against the Court, knowing full well that Courts, by their
nature, do not have the luxury of always stating their own side of
the story in public. As a member of the Bar, and a very young one
at that, one had expected Mr. Jimoh to seek clarification from the
relevant branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) that he may
belong, assuming he has ever attended any meeting at
all. He would do none of it, but would rather prefer to
continuously and persistently engage in his futile attempt at
tarnishing the image of the High Court of the FCT, Abuja.
From every indication, Mr. Jimoh wants to make a name for
himself as a “human rights advocate”. He is entitled to that,
but his choice of the High of the FCT, Abuja, which he has seen as
his forum to display the most brazen and crude form of hyperactive
and misinformed activism that is not grounded in truth, leaves so
much to be desired.
Mr. Jimoh is by this publication advised to desist from his
futile attempts at dragging the untainted image of the High Court
of the FCT, Abuja, in the mud. But should he continue in these
repeated mischievous onslaughts against the Court, we shall take
all possible legal means to call him to order.
The High Court of the FCT, Abuja will always continue in its
efforts towards providing a more accessible and faster justice
delivery to all within the FCT.
Chuks Ubani
Senior Special Assistant (Special Duties)
Office of the Chief Registrar,
High Court of the FCT, Abuja.
References
Read more high-court-of-the-fct-replies-jimoh-explains-why-it-charges-10-of-all-filling-fees/