Legal Year: NIC President Says Welfare of Judges is Paramount
President of the National Industrial Court, NIC, Justice Benjamin Kanyip, has stressed that the welfare of Judges remains paramount in administering justice in an equitable impartial and timely manner.
Justice Kanyip said this during a special court siting to Mark the 2022/2023 legal year of the National Industrial Court, NIC, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The National industrial court, established in 1976, observed its first legal year in October 2020, while the world was recovering from the COVID-19 scourge.
The court skipped the 2021/2022 legal year due to the paucity of funds but ushered in the 2022/2023 legal year, with a pledge to uphold its primary mandate in the dispensation of labour justice.
The Body of Senior advocates represented by Adegboyega Awomolo SAN, spoke on issues surrounding the invasion of judges’ residence, and made reference to the invasion by Security operatives of the home of a justice of the Court of Appeal in Kano in September 2022.
Pursuant to section 254C(3) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended), the National Industrial Court established an alternative dispute resolution center whose mandate is restricted to mediation, especially in individual employment Labour disputes.
Also in his remarks, the president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Yakubu Maikyau SAN confessed that the National Industrial Court remains a model court in many respects with regards to the approach of the Court to its constitutional responsibilities and the professionalism shown by its staff in matters of case management, correspondence with counsel and litigants and the discipline brought to bear in the aesthetics and general outlook of the Court across various divisions. Maikyau also commended their Lordships and the staff of the Court for the display of judicial courage, awareness and investment in corporate communications and relations which continues to distinguish the Court from others.
