By Our Reporter
The newly elected Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association ( NBA), Sokoto State Chapter, Barrister Muhammad Aliyu Sambo, has vowed to ensure reduction of the money spent by people in the state while seeking for justice.
Sambo told newsmen in Sokoto, Saturday:” We want to see that, the money spent in seeking justice is reduced to the minimal level, hence more poeple can access it.
“As it is now, the expensive nature of the judicial system is affecting it. People are regrettably finding it difficult to access and diligently secure justice.
“So much money is needed for filing of cases. For istance, 13% of what is being claimed is required as filing fees in some courts.
“That is so much for a common man to pay and this is inhibiting the seeking of justice by the members of the public.”
The NBA Chairman also promised to ensure adequate protection for the people’s rights, particularly when dealing with the law enforcement agencies like the police, civil defence, paramilitary and even the military.
According to the prominent Legal Practitioner, ” This issue is very important for the Bar, especially during my tenure .
“We want to ensure that, nobody violates the rights of the people and go scotfree.”
Also, Sambo promised to drastically reduce the incidences of judicial corruption in the system, mostly at the lower Courts.
The NBA Chairman added, ” We want to reduce the level of corruption at that level. This is crucial to the effective administration of justice .
” Corruption is negatively affecting the judicial system, just as it is eroding the confidence of the people in the system.
“This is to extent that, the people are now feeling that, they are better off if they settle their cases outside the Courts than coming to the court. This is because they don’t have confidence in the system.”
In the same vein, Mr. Sambo vowed to improve the level of discipline among the members of the Bar in the state.
While however submitting that, there were less problems of indiscipline in the branch, yet, he wants to do more to improve on the present state of affairs of the Association.
Sambo also promised to introduce some reforms, especially to shore up the unity amongst the over two hundred members of the Bar in the state .
He lamented that, hitherto, some members were hugely disgruntled, resulting in the boycotting of the activities of the Bar, especially meetings.
This, Sambo, explained, was sequel to some accumulated events that happened before now, adding :”It is my intention you see that people are brought back into the fold of the NBA.”
The Sokoto NBA Boss further vowed to improve on the extant relationship between the Bar and the Bench in the state, in his view, there cannot be any meaningful development when the bar and bench are at logger head.
Mr. Sambo also said that, the welfare of the members will be accorded top most priority, noting that, welfare is very important.
“There are challenging issues we will address, with a view to bringing positive changes and we will not rest on our oars on doing so,” he concluded.
