Justice is a necessity and lack of access to justice lead to people taking the law into their own hands; this is coming from Concerned Citizens of Yendi who have cried out about the absence of the Presiding Judge for the Yendi Circuit Court in the northern region.
According to the group, there has been no sitting at the court from September to December 2021 and there is still no sign showing the court will sit before the close of the year. In this respect, the youth laments the situation is adversely affecting the delivery and access to justice.
“Police go through a lot of difficulty prosecuting cases and may be forced to abuse the right of suspects or compromise as a matter of necessity” they said.
Vice President of the Yendi Concerned Citizens, Salifu Abdul-Latif, has therefore appealed to Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, to at least post a relieving Judge to the court whilst taking urgent steps to post a substantive Judge to the court subsequently.
“We wish that this is done in not more than 30 days of receipt of our petition” he affirmed.
He mentioned that the Yendi Circuit Court is the only court serving the Yendi municipal, Gushegu Municipal, Karaga, Mion, Saboba, Zabzugu and Tatale/Sanguli districts all within the eastern corridor of the region.
Mr. Salifu Abdul-Latif argues that over 770,000 people live in these communities and reiterated the absence of a judge at the court room means these people are being denied access to justice.
The Concerned Citizens of Yendi in a petition addressed to the Chief Justice observed that, civil and criminal cases that would have been tried faster and easier in Yendi are being sent to Tamale leading to an unbearable cost, inconvenience, risk and denials.
“The recent case of students drowning in Saboba had to be sent to Tamale district court. The distance between Tamale and Saboba is over 162km and travelers use almost 3 hours to travel. Cost of conveying suspects, prosecution witnesses, complainants, are just so unbearable and parties easily lose interest in some cases due to the inconveniences”
“…My lord, the recent rumors of warmongering among Dagombas, Nanumbas and Konkombas led to a number of operations, arrests and detentions. Some of these cases had to be sent to Tamale for trial. Absence of Judicial Service in Yendi put us in a serious risk of insecurity and disorder” the petition pointed out.
Yendi High Court
Meanwhile, the petitioners are also proposing the establishment of a High Court in the Yendi municipality to make justice more affordable and accessible to the people. They highlighted the 2021 population and housing census stipulated a population growth of more than one million people within the eastern corridor; yet there is no single high court to help handle cases whose jurisdiction exceed the circuit court.
“Also, because the circuit court uses High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2004 (CI 47) which is less flexible, people are unable to access legal services especially in civil cases. This lead to an unnecessary misunderstanding and tensions in civil disputes which sometimes lead to criminal offences.”
“We have noted that the new court house is what is being used for the circuit court, whilst the old court building is idling. We therefore want to propose that in the short-to-medium term, your outfit take steps to convert the circuit court to high court and create a district court in Yendi to make justice more affordable and accessible to the people.
The absence of district court means that prosecution, complainants and police have to still travel to Tamale for committals to be done in cases involving felonious offences” the petitioners argued.
