A Rule of Law Specialist, Enoch Jengre has entreated the general public to accept to use Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism to lessen the burden of cases on the courts.
He said the law courts are already being weighed down by cases that could rather be resolved through the various avenues of ADR including mediation.
Speaking on GTV’s flagship talk show programme, ‘Moomen Tonight’, Mr. Jengre indicated that only matters of serious nature should be sent to court and those that are civil in nature should be dealt with using ADR mechanism.
The programme was meant to create awareness on ADR as part of the implementation of the USAID Justice Sector Support Activity (JSSA).
Mr. Jengre explained that though the Case Tracking System (CTS) has made the prosecution of cases faster, the courts are still over burdened with cases. He, therefore, urged the general public to consider the court as their last resort.
“ Our courts are very much choked with cases that are unattended to that is why the Case Tracking System has been introduced to fast track the process. Apart from felony cases and sometimes assault cases, petty issues like tenant and landlord standoffs should be resolved using ADR. The court system should be the last resort after every possible means has been exhausted,” he said.
An Assistant Legal Aid Officer, Mamoud Sani said the use of ADR is less expensive, time-saving, and consolidates friendliness compared to the court system which involves litigation. He said one of the avenues to seek ADR services is the Legal Aid Commission but because of inadequate staff, it has not been able to deal with cases that they are confronted with. Mr. Mamoud indicated that the use of ADR helps avert the delay of serving justice.
USAID Justice Sector Support Activity
The USAID Justice Sector Support Activity (JSSA) aims at increasing citizen knowledge and access to Justice Sector services, strengthening advocacy interventions for accountability of key Justice Sector Institutions to improve justice delivery, and increasing citizens’ oversight and monitoring of criminal cases to enhance justice delivery.
