The chief judge of the FCT, Justice Husseni Baba-Yusuf, on Monday expressed concern over the negative effects of social media on the administration of justice.

Declaring the 2023/2024 Legal Year open, Mr Baba-Yusuf said the judiciary’s essential task is to make independent and impartial decisions on disputes brought before them.

He added that the judiciary’s goal was to uphold the principles of openness, transparency, and accessibility in administering justice.

”I consider that it is pertinent to draw attention to one social evil that confronts the administration of justice frontally in this jet age of technology. I refer here to the menace of social media,” said Mr Baba-Yusuf. 

He decried that social media platforms are channels of misinformation, violation of rights, disinformation, bullying, fake news,  and online harassment. 

”The alarming rates at which unverified allegations and malicious attacks on or against innocent persons are recklessly posted and spread around on social media denotes how so low civility has declined in our society at large,” he added. 

The chief judge said the truth remained that when institutions are maligned and debased, their evil effects percolate on the entire society.

”To bring me to my specific remarks today on this point, coming from my role as the head of an institution dedicated to the administration of justice, I find it worrisome to see these trends transposed sometimes in ways we notice, sometimes in ways we may not see into the judicial sphere,” he said.

He said the FCT judiciary received 5,952 and 7,354 cases, respectively, in the 2022/2023 legal year. 

”In the course of the year, the courts successfully determined 4,293 cases representing 72..4 per cent. Meanwhile, the magistrate courts successfully determined 7,328 cases, encompassing both civil and criminal matters, thereby achieving an outstanding completion rate of 99.6 per cent.

” As the 2022/2023 legal year wound up, there were 13,996 pending cases, covering both civil and criminal matters, at the Magistrate Court,” he said.

Mr Baba-Yusuf noted that for the effectiveness of the functions of judges, they have to be respected, regarded, and protected.

He said the FCT judiciary wants to deliver an exemplary justice that can repose confidence in the members of the public amid several challenges. 

(NAN)