Elkass Sannoh, the Spokesperson for the Judiciary of Sierra Leone, has revealed to Youth Corpers that apart from poor salary and unqualified staffing, Court Clerks were regularly accused of misplacing Court files and Sureties were at the same time jumping bail as a normal pattern at the Judiciary.

Speaking on the issue he revealed that, it has been a usual routine at the judiciary before the appointment of His Lordship Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards whose regime has seen a dramatic change respectively.

“That was the status of the Judiciary before the appointment of the current Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards in December, 2018 by His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio.” He stated

Digging more on the issue, maintained that, many things were not in place.

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“There was nothing like Court Operations Manager, Principal Accountant, Human Resources Manager, Procurement and Logistics Manager, Supreme Court Registrar, Court of Appeal Registrar and Estate and Facilities Officer among host of other positions,” he said.

He furthered that, they also had insufficient Judges and Magistrates with huge burden as referenced by the 2017-2018 Management and Functional Review Report with one 143,000 citizens to a Judicial Officer, he emphasized. Adding that, the Judiciary’s activities were not only shrouded in secrecy but they were never accountable to the public.

He said, data records or Court management were a problem altogether as well as the  Court infrastructures were not in god form as some are still dilapidated for human habitation. Judges and Magistrates were writing Judgements in their dark chambers where they will be sweating with no AC Facility and that even journalists were not spared and that, the Court Reporters were not only deprived of the much needed information, their job was not respected by the Judiciary administration, as reported respectively.

Speaking on the issue of qualification status of the staff at the judiciary, he said the Judiciary before now only had one University graduate apart from the Master and Registrar and the Deputy Master and Registrar who are or were lawyers. He said Magistrates and Judges were receiving what many described as pittance before 2019 compared with others in the sub-region and that with the current dispensation those conditions have been worked upon respectively.

He maintained that, Judiciary with support from the Government has been able to conduct Special High Court Criminal Sessions at three different intervals every year in places where there are no Resident Judges with over 823,000 persons having access to justice in those places pointing out that, During the period under review (January 2019 to December 2022), the actual recurrent expenditure towards this activity from funds allocated to the Judiciary from the Government amounted to Four Million, Six Hundred and Twenty-Seven Thousand and Seventy-Three new Leones (SLe. 4,627,073.00). Apart from the increased access to justice, these regular Court sittings reduced the financial burden on the people and the difficulties to travel outside their localities just to seek justice.

Elkass Sannoh being a Guest Lecturer commended the Chief Justice for the establishment of the first Virtual Court to expedite cases before the Court, giving the opportunity to suspects in detention to be in detention and still have their cases heard.

Adding that, a witness also has the opportunity to be heard even when he or she is living abroad.

In the same vein, the new Commercial Court Rules 2020 allows for evidence to be given on application to the Judge from abroad through Zoom for the first time.