Lack of funds may hamper hearing election petitions – Appel Court President

Mrs Dongban-Mensem, as the President of the Court of Appeal, is responsible for constituting various tribunals that hear disputes arising from the presidential, governorship, state and national assembly elections across the country.
The Court of Appeal serves as the coordinating secretariat for all election petition tribunals.
Mrs Dongban-Mensem spoke of the financial predicaments threatening the smooth running of the yet-to-be-constituted election petition tribunals ahead of next year’s general elections at the 2022/2023 legal year ceremony of the appellate court in Abuja on Monday.
With a few months to the 2023 polls, Mrs Dongbam-Mensem said the federal government has yet to release funds for the setting up of the panels of judges and supporting staff for the tribunals.
“The essential ingredient for the tribunals to function effectively to maximum capacity is the provision of the much-needed funding to provide adequate facilities for the tribunals across the nation,” she said in her address.
She said, “the funds to prosecute the 2023 general election petition tribunals have still not been released,” adding, “This is becoming worrisome as it may impede plans to constitute the various tribunals and courts.”
She said the issue has stalled the training of justices and supporting staff for tribunals.
Appealing to the relevant government agencies for the release of the funds, the appellate court’s president said the existing election petition tribunals in Ekiti, Osun, Plateau and Anambra states, “have taken up a whole chunk of the very limited resources of the Court (of Appeal).”
Similarly, she highlighted the lack of funds as “impediments to increased adoption of ICT in the court.”
Concerning the staff strength of the court, Mrs Dongban-Mensem said the appellate court has 10 existing vacancies for justices.
“A depletion of a workforce of 11% of our strength is significant,” she said while revealing that the process of appointing replacements for the vacancies was ongoing.