6,992 cases pending before industrial court, says NICN president

The President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice Benedict Kanyip, on Tuesday, revealed that a total of 6,992 cases are pending in the court.

He regretted that only 1,616 cases have been treated out of 8,608 cases received since the celebration of the court’s legal year in 2022.

Justice Kanyip stated this in Abuja at the special sitting held to mark the Industrial Court’s 2024/2025 legal year.
He added that, based on statistics obtained from the National Judicial Council and the number of pending cases for the first quarter of 2024, the workload ratio per judge of the court is 186.80.

He said, “The figure was arrived at by dividing the total number of pending cases for the quarter by the number of serving judges.”

He explained that poor funding has caused some states with a very high number of cases to be unable to secure a second judge to lessen the workload.

He said, “The reality, however, is that some judges, depending on their divisions, shoulder more workload than others. In this sense, the Owerri and Makurdi Divisions, with over 500 cases in their respective dockets and only one resident judge in each of the divisions, are where the resident judge shoulders more workload than any other judge of the court.

“Since we do not have a second house for the judge in Owerri, and neither a second courtroom nor a house for the judge in Makurdi, it has not been possible to send a second judge to any of these divisions.

“We are hoping that with improved funding, we will be able to solve these problems and accordingly have second judges in the near future.”

He also complained about the poor utilisation of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre of the court by litigants and their counsel.

According to him, between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, litigants and their counsel agreed to refer only 41 cases to the centre, out of which only nine were settled.

He lamented how 31 cases had to be returned to the courts that referred them in the first place for adjudication, adding that one case is still pending resolution.

He said, “From January 1, 2024, to date, the figures show the ADR Centre of the Court has received 34 matters for settlement, six of which were resolved, while 18 cases were not settled and were returned to the courts that referred them to the centre. The remaining ten are still undergoing mediation and settlement.”

Justice Kanyip, however, lauded the recent increment in salary and allowances of judicial office holders in the country, as well as the alteration of Section 291 of the 1999 Constitution, which reduced to 10 years (from the former 15 years) the period required for a judicial officer to be in service to qualify for a pension for life.

He also expressed happiness over the increased service year for judges other than justices of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal to 70 years, and the bringing closer to the purview of the NJC the payment of pensions and other retirement benefits of state judicial officers.

Justice Kanyip added, “Section 291 of the 1999 Constitution should be further amended to allow for retired judicial officers to receive as pension the same salary and allowances as their equivalents who are still in service at any point in time.”