By Ibrahim J. Conteh
The Judiciary of Sierra Leone being one of the oldest in Africa has over the years came under serious condemnation by the public including the media for not being unable to dispend justice in an independent, transparent and speedy manner which are the hallmarks of any judiciary.
And in a bid to inform the public about the unimaginable reforms in the Judiciary, the Head of Communication, Elkass Sannoh disclosed in the weekly press briefing held at the Ministry of information and Communications Conference Hall, Youyi Building in Freetown that since the appointment of Hon. Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards as Chief Justice a lot has been achieved.
These achievements he said has compelled other countries to come on study tours to learn from the leadership style of the Chief Justice and his dedicated management team. Key among the many developmental strives are: The deployment of magistrates across all districts for the first time and recruitment and deployment of Judges in places where there were no sitting Judges.
Mr. Sannoh added that Hon. Justice Babatunde Desmond Edwards inherited a Judiciary that was described as an eyesore in the country, at that time he said the Judiciary had only one university graduate apart from the Master and Registrar and the Deputy Master and Registrar.
He disclosed that the Master and Registrar arrogated all the titles to himself irrespective of his accounting and administrative deficiencies to even become a Vote Controller recalling that there was nothing like Court Operations Manager, Principal Accountant, Human Resource Manager, Procurement and Logistics Manager, Supreme Court Registrar, Court of Appeal Registrar and Estate and Facilities Officer among other positions.
He reiterated that apart from the low salary and unqualified staffing, Court Clerks were hugely accused of misplacing court files while sureties were regularly jumping bail, Judges and Magistrate wrote judgements in their dark and hot chambers.
He further informed that even the main Law Courts Building was a trading center for street hawkers, and that Holden cells for prisoners were stinky polluting the entire environment underscoring that the Judiciary’s activities were not only shrouded in secrecy but were never accountable to the public highlighting that even data records or court management became a nightmare.
Mr. Sannoh concluded that with little over three years in office under the leadership of Chief Justice Edwards, they have been able to recruit more qualified staff to senior positions and that for the first time, effected over 200% salary increment for all staff, first virtual court to expedite trials, increased access to justice and improvement in the court’s records management system.