Judges Conduct Court Proceedings With Torch In Lagos

Court proceedings were conducted in darkness yesterday at the Ikeja division of the Lagos State High Court, as power outage persisted.

Several judges of the court were unable to sit, leaving lawyers and litigants, who prepared to conduct their cases disappointed.

Status quo was maintained till 11 a.m. when a power generating set was switched on. The power outage was said to have persisted for over a week.

Thirty minutes after the power was brought back, the generating set went off, prompting some of the judges to stall their proceedings.

Judges who were conducting their cases, however, opted to continue proceedings with torchlight to conclude their cases.

Lawyers who were in the court were also forced to use lights from their phones since the courtroom was in darkness.

Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo,who had continued proceedings with a torch, however rose about 10 minutes after he was unable to continue with the proceedings.

At Justice Kudirat Jose’s court, where the bail application for Lagos lawyer, Mr Fred Ajudua, was billed to be heard, the judge conducted part of her court proceedings in darkness for about five minutes before stepping out of the bench to her chambers, while all cases before her were adjourned.

A senior official of the court who insisted on anonymity told Vanguard that the court premises had since been cut off from power supply.

The official said the court took the decision following huge bills for the court even when there was no electricity supply for weeks.

The official also said the two generating sets in the court had been faulty in the past one month.