The Chief Judge of Ogun State, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu, has revealed that some thieves broke into her court and carted away equipment bought for virtual court sittings.
Dipeolu spoke at the launch of the case management and scheduling system, an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tool for judges.
The chief judge said the state judiciary had in 2020 begun partial digitisation of judicial processes during the COVID-19 lockdown by adopting virtual sittings for court proceedings.
She said the stolen pieces of equipment were bought for the state judiciary by Governor Dapo Abiodun as part of efforts to fully digitalise the judicial system in the state for effective and efficient justice administration.
However, she did not give the details of the equipment.
“In 2020, after the relaxation of lockdown, I issued practice directions one and two of 2020 on virtual sitting to reduce to the barest minimum interactions with people generally as the situation demanded.
“In a bid to aid this, the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, approved and provided equipment in my court again as a pilot scheme for virtual sittings. While my brother judges in Abeokuta and other divisions in Ogun State used the zoom app with their laptops to conduct virtual sittings.
“However, sometime ago, thieves broke into my court and stole the equipment; since then I have also been using my laptop to conduct virtual sittings. Virtual sitting is a very minor part of digitisation which is very desirable in case scheduling and the only challenge the Ogun State judiciary faces in executing full digitisation is the provision of internet facility,” she said.
Dipeolu said the case management and scheduling system would enable judges to have access to the details of cases assigned to them at a touch of a button from either their laptops or mobile phones.