By Austin Ogwuda , Asaba

Former  Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore, is advocating a  national conference on civil procedure as part of the strategy to achieve speedy trial of cases. “The  idea that an election petition will remain in court for  whole three years after has proved totally unacceptable”, he said at the 5th Distinguished Annual Lecture Series organized by the Delta State House of Assembly Service Commission.

 Blaming  the National Assembly for not enacting appropriate laws spelling out impeachment offences, Belgore said: “The main reason for the inordinate delays in electoral adjudication is not due to the fault of the electoral tribunals, rather it is due to archaic and totally ridiculous procedures we have for trying all matters in our courts. There is need to repeal all  our procedures – civil and criminal – so as to enhance expeditious trial of cases.

“The present civil procedures (especially the one borrowed from Lagos State) do not address adequately timeousness and cost of litigation. What we borrowed from colonial masters of England is not suitable for our present progress. The procedures are archaic, expensive and is not of help for expeditious trial. United States of America has nothing to teach us because their procedures have no respect for timeous trial of cases and for cost effectiveness.”

On the ambiguity surrounding impeachment of public officers, the former CJN said “the simple reason is this,  the National Assembly has not passed any law to define which offence can lead to impeachment. So this has been left to the court to decide.”

Belgore, who spoke on “Electoral Reforms or Electorates Reform?,” said: “we have made a lot of efforts in putting in place the enabling legal and organizational framework for having a good election.