Justice Daniel Longji of a Jos State High Court on Thursday
apologized to lawyers over the lack of functional toilet facilities
it the Jos High Court premise.
The Judge apologized to Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), the EFCC
Prosecuting Counsel in Sen. Jonah Jang’s N6.3 billion fraud case,
and pleaded with the Bar to help the Judiciary in the mess it has
found itself in.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Jang case was
on when the judge suggested a 20 minutes stand down to enable
people who want to visit the restrooms to do so.
Jacobs had agreed with the judge but Longji told him there were
no functional restrooms in the court premises.
“I have to apologize to you over the none availability of a
functional toilet facility in the whole of this High Court
premises. The situation here is this bad.
“You on the Bar must come to the assistance of the judiciary
considering the situation it has found itself in this time
around.
“I can’t imagine that in the whole of this premises, there is no
single functional toilet facility that could cater for the people
coming here for ligations,” Longji lamented.
Responding, Chief Mike Ezekhome (SAN), Counsel to Jang, assured
the Judge of the Bar’s readiness to assist in the area of raising
the matter with the authorities.
“Sir, we at the Bar are always fighting for you, particularly my
very self. I will not stop fighting for the judiciary. For a whole
High Court like this to be without a functional toilet facility is
very unfortunate.
“We shall as lawyers take this matter seriously to stop the
embarrassment and the inconveniences being caused litigants that
troop in here for one thing or the other, ’’ Ezekhome assured.
“I did a lot of write-ups and carried out some crusades in my
fights for the judiciary. This situation the judge talked about is
very unfortunate and uncalled for.’’
NAN’s findings revealed that virtually all the toilets lacked
running water and can’t be used by anybody. (NAN)
Speaking to NAN, the Registrar of the Court, Mr. Geoffrey
Kamyal, said: “we renovated some of the toilets. Another challenge
is lack of running water.
“We are using well water at the High Court premises now.
“Just as the Judge pointed out, most time it’s the Nigeria Bar
Association that fight for the Judiciary for some things to be put
right in the Judiciary.
“Our challenge is that our monthly subventions hardly comes as
expected, which usually hinders us from putting somethings right
for the good of the people coming around the High Court, ’’ Kamyal
explained.