Excitement as Ekiti town gets new courthouse 50 years after

• Published date: 24 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

So many factors can cause the abrupt adjournment of cases, but no one would have imagined that the sudden appearance of a snake on a judge's desk would be one of them.

Imagine the judge making a dash for the door in a bid to escape being bitten, fleeing from his chambers.

No one would blame the judge for not returning. Who knows if there are more snakes where the first came from?

That was the situation in the Ikere Division of the Ekiti State High Court, but the dilapidated state of the old courthouse, which had been there for almost five decades, has been banished.

In its place is an ultra-modern one-storey courthouse built and donated by the Chairman of the Body of Benchers and former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN).

The commissioning last Thursday in Ikere by Governor Biodun Oyebanji had in attendance members of the Bench, the Bar, senators, traditional rulers and community leaders.

The facility has two standard courtrooms, each of which can comfortably accommodate 50 counsel and 30 litigants.

It has cloakrooms, toilet facilities, a 120KVA generator, a borehole, a conference room and a meeting room.

The courthouse also has a dining room, two pre-trial rooms, two exhibit rooms, two holding cells, a cashier's office, a store, a registry, a general office, a reception hall, an 8,000-volume-capacity library already equipped with 4,000 books, and Close Circuit Television (CCTV).

The donor promised to provide maintenance assistance for the first two years, after which the Judiciary will fully take over.

Chief Judge of Ekiti State, Justice John Adeyeye, said it was the first time an individual would donate a courthouse to the state judiciary in its 26 years of existence.

He said the edifice was delivered within a record four months and four days.

The CJ lamented that many other courtrooms in Ekiti were in serious states of disrepair and needed urgent facelifts.

He also urged the state government to construct an administrative block and headquarters for the state judiciary.

He described the building donated by Olanipekun as 'a 21st-century facility that is well-equipped, elegant and functional.

'Each of the two court halls compares with any of the best courtrooms anywhere in Nigeria,' the CJ said.

He added that the problem of funding and the poor state of infrastructure were major challenges facing the state's judiciary.

'Out of 10 judicial divisions, six are at stages of dilapidation, including Omuo, Ikole, Efon, Emure, Ilawe and Ido Ekiti divisions; and 20 of 29 customary courts are...