A Federal High court in Abuja has fixed the 2nd of December, 2014 to commence hearing on the matter concerning the reopening of courts in Rivers State.
A social rights group in Rivers State, the Civil Liberty Organisation, CLO, had approached the court to set aside the order of the Rivers State Judicial Service Commission.
When the matter came up in court, the counsel to the Rivers State Government, Adedeji Adedipe asked the court for an adjournment to give him more time to reply the claims raised by the CLO.
Meanwhile, counsel to the CLO, O.C Higher King did not oppose the request.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Chukwu, granted the request.
The courts in Rivers State have been under lock for almost five months over the strike embarked upon by members of the Judiciary Staff Union.
Meanwhile, in more efforts to put an end to the unending crisis in the Rivers State Judiciary, the Nigerian Bar Association in the state had held an extraordinary meeting with Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
The decision to hold the meeting with the Governor was reached after an enlarged meeting of the NBA held at Old G.R.A, Port Harcourt.
Port Harcourt branch Chairman of the NBA, Dennis Okwapkam, who spoke on behalf of the five branches of the NBA in the state told newsmen that the move to meet with Governor Amaechi was aimed at finding a lasting solution to the inefficiency of the Judicial arm of Government in the state.
He said an emergency meeting will be held by the NBA to inform the lawyers of the outcome of the meeting with the Rivers State Government.
“The burning issue is the closure of courts for the past five months and we have been out of the courts which is not good for our profession.
“We would not want to continue to sound pessimistic. We believe that the issues will be resolved when we meet with the Governor. We will make him understand that the courts have been closed for too long and they need to be reopened.
“We know that at the end of the meeting, the government officials will do what they have to do so that we all can go back to work and then police can start arraigning people again and so on”, he said.
