Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifiru, on Monday, unveiled a state of the art model library and Citizen's Mediation Center built and equipped by the state Honourable Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr Ben Uruchi Odoh.
The model library which situated at the ministry of Justice, Ochudo Centenary City, Abakaliki, has e-books and hardcopies primarily established to enhance the knowledge base and research needs of the lawyers in the state.
Governor Nwifiru, represented by his Deputy, Patricia Obila, praised Dr. Odoh's relentless efforts in driving justice reform in the state. He also assured citizens of the administration's commitment to prioritizing policies and programmes that place their interests at the centre and formally commissioned both the library and the Citizens Mediation Centre.
"Today is one of my happiest day. There was a day I came here, but when I was coming today, I almost missed my way.
I want to thank you all and appreciate all your hard work. Without your hard work and cooperation we wouldn't have been here to celebrate. One thing is start a project, another thing is to complete it. I could remember the day I came here, all these plans were reeled out and today it has come to reality. All thanks to our boss and leader, His Excellency Rt Hon. Bldr Francis Ogbonna Nwifiru.
"We're all gathered here to celebrate your hard work and I want to thank you all for cooperating with the Commissioner to achieve all these.
"We appreciate our boss, the Governor for creating the enabling environment for us to operate. We know how this place was scattered but in this short time everything is been put in place because we have a great leader on a mission and all of you are cueing in, contributing your quota for the advancement of the our dear State. Your sacrifice and cooperation will not be taken for granted.
"Keep supporting this Government because our governor meant well for all of us".
Earlier, the State Honourable Attorney and Commissioner for Justice, Dr Ben Odoh said he is intentionally trying to turn into reality, his aspirational legacy for the justice system in the state in line with people's charter of needs agenda of the present administration.
"Your Excellency, when you came last time, everywhere was shattered, the ceiling was not here, no library, what we had was a book store and we pleaded with you to see how you can intervene let us have a library and let us have a condusive environment for our Lawyers to do their research, you told us that you will assist, you did assist as you said Your Excellency ma, and today you're here representing the Governor to officially open the remodelled library.
"One thing we have been able to do is that we've acquired at least, some basic books that we need, you know our books are very costly, there's one book here that is 2.8million, just one. We also have to get some common law series, for you to get common law series, you have to budget at least 12million for a series. So, we became intentional about getting those basic books, basis law reports, the supreme Court judgments, the common law series, the supreme Court White papers, the precedents books that will also help us as Lawyers. We did not just acquired those hardcopy books but we also subscribe to the e-copies. We subscribe to Law pavilion lifetime. All we'll be doing is to renew it every year. We equally have the E- Section of the library, if you don't have the strength to open books and read the physical, you can surph the net with what we have subscribe.
"We're also discussing with Wikipedia and Opedia to see how they can install Artificial intelligence (AI) for us, to enable us ease our research.
We're glad that today, Your Excellency, we are able to have that.
"What we did as ministry is that we said we need to have a synergy with the High Court as part of our cooperate social responsibility even when we are not comfortable here in the ministry, we decided to gift the court first, before coming to our own.
So, the first project we did as a ministry was to build Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Center called Ebonyi State Multi-door Court house.in the premises of the state High Court.
"We have a miniaturized form of it here, 'Citizen's mediation Center, so that the civil matters that we have jurisdiction over, not a criminal matter, we settle it here. The citizens mediation Center is exclusively, for the poor. Some body will be saying why are we multiplying it, we have the Multi door Court House, we're now having citizens mediation Center. The difference is that when the citizens of the state go to resolve their matter in Ebonyi State Multi door Court House, they pay for that service, but the one we have here, the citizens mediation Center is exclusively for poor indigent, who do not have money to hire the services of lawyers, they come here and resolve the matter free of charge and if need be, we assist them with small money for transportation depending on the need of the people that come. Since we opened the place, we are glad to announce to you that we've been able to disposed off 68 cases at the our citizens mediation Center".
Dr Ben Odoh pointed other things his ministry wants to do in the next few months to include establishing a food Cafe for the lawyers in the ministry and getting a befiting office for the state public defender.
He called on cooperate organizations to support the ministry to achieve these as a way of their cooperate social responsibility to the state.
"We want to have a food Cafe in the ministry, we want to assume Your Excellency that in the next one month, that Cafe will be here.
"I plead with our friends here to see this as part of their social cooperate responsibility. We're asking for your support, we need to have that food Cafe. We also working on the office of public defender section because, the people that in prison, we are the one prosecuting them and the legal Aide Council here, most of them seems to be more interested in federal offenses order than state offenses. So, we've decided to have our own legal Aide Unit which is called office of the public defender. While those criminals we're prosecuting who do not have lawyer that are languishing in prison, we have decided to make available lawyers that will be defending them free of charge, so we need to have a very good office for them to enable them do that.
The Attorney General also revealed that as part of efforts in helping the judges get out of the woods in the area of writing judgements, he has secured a speech-to- text machine for the state High from the United States of America.
"Your Excellency, I want to also bring to your knowledge the challenges our judges go through. Our judges are still writing with long hands. They take time to write their judgement and everything. So, when I became attorney General, I decided to scout for help. I wrote to PPDC in United State, 'Public Private Development Center' to see if they can make donation of speech to text machine to enable our judges, after delivery of judgement they can press print and everything they said during the judgement will be printed out for them and such will help them write less, and to the glory of God, Your Excellency, they have granted that request. The PPDC US, Approved three States in Nigeria to have that machine at no cost, Nasarawa, Ebonyi and Jigawa States. They will be here tomorrow to assess what we have and make that donation to the Ebonyi State judiciary so that we have a digitalized Court system. They are also coming with virtual hearing devices so that some people who may pose a threat in the prison need not to come to the court, they just put the device there while the Judges will be in their chambers and the matter will go on and the people will be heard from the prison without bringing them to the court.
I want to thank Your Excellency for giving us the enabling environment to contribute our little quota in the advancement and reformation of Justice sector in our dear State, Ebonyi. We're eternally grateful, Your Excellency".
In his words of administration, Rev. Fr. Abraham Nwali charge the legal professionals present to harness the library's resources to equip themselves for the turbulent times we live in. He pointed out that in a world where the fabric of order is fraying, leading to chaos in families, economies, and politic, lawyers must rise above these challenges with wisdom and integrity. Fr. Nwali passionately implored the audience to ground their duties in the fear of God, stating that a legal luminary devoid of reverence for divine justice is akin to a sharp knife in the hands of a madman capable of inflicting great harm rather than delivering true justice. His message served as a solemn reminder that the pursuit of justice must always be guided by a moral compass to restore order in a world teetering on the brink of disarray.
Dignitaries in attendance included Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha, the State Chairman of APC; Rt. Hon. Onah Chinedu Ogba, Deputy Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly; Hon. Justice Iheanacho Chima, Commissioner for Trade and Investment; Chief Elechi Nnanna Elechi; Commissioner for market development, Professor Nwogo Ajuka Obasi; Commissioner for skill Development, Hon. Oko Udu, Commissioner for Water resources Hon. Magnus Chinedu Nkah; Commissioner for Border and Conflict Resolution, Dr. Donatus Ilang; Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Legal Services ;; Barr. Friday Nwuhuo and representatives from the business community, including Mr. Obi Alio and Mr. Aja Nwachukwu from First Petroilt Nigeria Ltd and Zenith Bank, respectively. Others include the Chairmen of Nigeria Bar Association of Abakaliki, Afikpo and Onueke branches among others.
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