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Court of Appeal Justices Storm Lagos to Clear 360 Cases in Special Sitting

Metro Desk

LAGOS — The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, has commenced a massive judicial decongestion exercise, listing 360 appeals for hearing in a special sitting that began on Monday.

Justices drawn from various divisions across the country have arrived in Lagos to man two distinct panels, working simultaneously to tackle the heavy backlog of cases clogging the nation’s busiest appellate docket.

The Mission: Decongest the Docket

The special session, authorised by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, is scheduled to run throughout the week.

Court officials confirmed that the primary objective is to fast-track justice delivery and reduce the pile of pending judgements. The listed cases span a wide range of legal disputes, including:

  • Commercial disputes involving banks and corporations.

  • Criminal appeals that have suffered long delays.

  • Land and property matters.

“The Justices mean business,” a senior registrar at the Igbosere court complex stated. “We have set up two special panels to sit back-to-back. The goal is to clear as many ripe appeals as possible within this window.”

Lawyers React

The legal community has welcomed the development with relief. Several Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and counsel were seen at the court premises on Monday, hurrying to move their motions.

“This is a breath of fresh air,” said Barrister Tunde Oladipo, who has a land appeal pending since 2023. “The Lagos Division is overwhelmed because of the volume of commerce in the state. Bringing in extra Justices to focus solely on clearing the backlog is exactly what we need.”

Why Lagos?

The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal is notoriously overworked, handling the highest volume of cases in the country due to Lagos being Nigeria’s commercial nerve center.

Justice Dongban-Mensem has previously identified the division as a priority for such interventions, noting that “justice delayed is justice denied.” This special sitting is part of a broader annual strategy by the appellate court to ensure that litigants do not wait in perpetuity for verdicts.

The panels are expected to deliver rulings on many of the heard applications before the week concludes.