By Ugochukwu Alaribe

ABA—Litigants in Akwete, the headquarters of Ukwa East Local Council of Abia State have decried the absence of a presiding magistrate in the magistrate court in the area, stressing that this has impeded prompt dispensation of matters pending in the court.

In an interview with journalists in Aba, spokesman of the litigants, Chief David Ikechi Ekenta, said since July when the former magistrate was transferred to Eziama in Aba North Magisterial district, no other magistrate had been sent to Akwete as replacement.

“It is said that justice delayed is justice denied, since four months all the cases in that magistrate court have remained unattended to, as there is no magistrate to attend to such cases.

“Apart from this matter and others pending in the court, some accused persons, who were remanded in custody have been languishing in detention without their cases being heard due to the absence of a presiding magistrate.”

Ekenta disclosed that inquiries they made on the matter revealed that the Chief Judge of Abia State whose duty it was to assign a new magistrate to the court travelled out of the country. He appealed for the immediate assignment of a new magistrate to the court to save litigants further hardship.