The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja branch has created an online platform to monitor corruption in the judiciary and also impediments in the courtroom and its premises such as inefficiency, and non or late sitting of judges.
The new platform called “i-Witness” is a feature of the new website of the branch. In a statement signed by the secretary of the branch, Ayodeji Olabiwonnu, “it is a another new initiative aimed at energizing the collaborative efforts of the Branch and the leadership of the Bench and other establishments of interest at combating all forms of inefficiency, corruption, and other impediments to practice within our court systems, as well as other areas where our members ply their trade”.
It is the initiative of the Adeniyi Quadri led executive of the branch.
Olabiwonnu stated: “The feature allows members to report live, with pictorial and video evidence, incidences of bribe-seeking, dereliction of duty, unwarranted or unreasonable delayed court sittings without notice, harassment of lawyers, etc., in our courts, registries, and security agencies formations”.
It stated that the Executive Committee is committed in its bid to make Secretariat services more seamless, more efficient, and more impactful without compromising standards, transparency, and accountability in all its activities and service to the members.
Other new initiatives of the branch included operation of a fully digital Secretariat, and upgrade of the branch website.
Olabiwonnu stated: “Henceforth, branch dues and other branch payments will be fully online. From now going forward, the needless waste of man hours and resources of both our members and the staff of the Secretariat, which was hitherto occasioned by the tedious process of queuing up at the Bar Centre to register payments and waiting even longer to pick up payment receipts, is now a thing of the past. Payments are now seamless from the comfort of our homes and offices. Electronic official receipts are generated and issued instantly, and necessary details and records are harvested by the relevant officers at the backend. The stress associated with the previous process, particularly for our colleagues in house, has now been successfully eliminated”.
He stated further: “Another new feature of the upgraded Branch website is the online application for letters of good standing. With this new feature, the entire process from application to issuance of letters of good standing will be contactless. We believe our members in need of letters of good standing, particularly members in the diaspora, can now heave a sigh of relief with this more seamless process”, he concluded.
