Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, emphasized the urgent need for judges to deliver verdicts promptly, warning that delays undermine public trust in the judiciary.
“At the last meeting of the committee, there was a reduction in case disposal as some judicial officers failed to deliver a single judgment in one quarter. This is simply unacceptable,” she stated.
Speaking at the third annual National Judicial Council conference on judges’ performance evaluation in Abuja, Kekere-Ekun highlighted alarming statistics: as of Q1 2024, 243,253 cases were pending in superior courts, comprising 199,747 civil and 43,506 criminal cases.
She stressed, “We must be deeply concerned by the increase in pending cases and low disposition rates… It is imperative for all of us to take a serious note of this alarming situation, and for this purpose, we must re-focus our attention towards enhancing our judicial performance.”
