Lawyer Calls For More Courts

A Port Harcourt based law
yer Barr Jackson Assor has called for the appointment of more high court judges in Rivers State in order to ease the glut of cases in the state judiciary.
Barr. Assor, who stated this while speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday, expressed regrets that criminal trials were taking more time than expected.
He said it was unfortunate that accused persons who were presumed innocent by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended passed through an ordeal in the course of criminal trials.
According to him, “the maximum security prison, Port Harcourt is filled with accused persons awaiting trial.”
“It is regrettable that some accused persons awaiting trial have been made to stay longer in custody than they ordinarily would have stayed if they were convicted. It is pathetic,” he stated.
“You will find out that in some cases, the office of the Director of Public Prosecution has failed to file information against the accused person.
Sometimes the accused persons are simply thrown into custody and forgotten.
He said one of the cases he was handling, the accused person, who was arrested during a mass arrest in Rumuodamoya in 2011, five years ago has not been formerly charged to court yet he had spent five years in custody.
Barr. Assor said despite his recent efforts towards applying for bail for the accused person in a high court nothing had been done by the office of the DPP.
He described the administration of justice as tripartite business; justice for the accused person for wide allowed to suffer unduely.

Chidi Enyie