Many stakeholders in the criminal justice sector in Enugu State as well as people from allied fields of security and social rehabilitations gathered at the Enugu State High Court Complex on Tuesday 19^th March, 2013 to witness the official commissioning of the new Case Management System CMS developed and equipped by Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action PRAWA with the support of Justice for All J4A Programme of British Government’s Department of International Development DFID.

The new Case Management System for the Enugu State Judiciary is an improved case management and records department for the Enugu State Judiciary Headquarters. The unit houses information technology equipments, modern office furniture and other facilities that will make for improved case management procedures in the courts. The commissioning of the new Case Management System of the Enugu State High Court is to fulfill of one of the major needs identified earlier for the Speeding-Up Criminal Justice System Project in Enugu. The project three component of Speeding-Up Criminal Justice system in Enugu State focuses on enhancing the court trial process through implementation of various interventions that will remove all foreseen and unforeseen clogs in the wheels of speedy delivery of criminal justice within the courts in Enugu State.

Cutting the tape to mark the official commissioning of the unit, the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Honourable Justice Innocent Uwazurike thanked the Department for International Development DFID of United Kingdom Government for the Justice for All Programme through which the intervention has been made possible. He commended the PRAWA team as the programme manager for their relentless efforts to ensure that Enugu State Judiciary is carried along the projects that have direct bearing with their operations. Among the people present at the commissioning ceremony were all the High Court Justices in Enugu State, representatives of Justice for All J4A,  the Case Management System Consultants were and other Civil Society Organizations CSOs.

The Executive Director of PRAWA; Dr. Uju Agomoh said that the intervention is part of the project three of the speeding-up criminal justice system in Enugu State which focuses on enhancing and speeding-up court trials. According to her, Enugu State Judiciary has benefited from the project on many fronts which include Donation of Motorcycles to Court Bailiffs, Production of Prosecutors Handbook, Resource and Financial Management Process Training, Training of Court Bailiffs among others. She explained that the Case Management System will enable the collation and management of all information related to cases in the courts relatively easy and accessible through the click of a button. Dr. Agomoh said that Case Management System as presently being installed for Nigerian Prisons Service, Nigerian Police Force, Ministry of Justice and Enugu State Judiciary will in the long run make cross sectoral harmonization of data seamless and effective.

PRAWA Project Lead on Case Management System Jasper Ukachukwu and J4A Consultant on CMS Ndubuisi Onuoha took turns to explain the benefits of new Case Management System which include rapid access and tracking of data of cases under litigation and after. They explained the process of operation of the system from data entry on Case Registration and Amendment Form to Case Update Form and finally to Case Management Unit CMU which is the mega data bank of the system.

The DFID-funded Nigeria Justice for All Programme (J4A), in partnership with PRAWA, began working with the government and non-government actors of Enugu State to “Speed up Criminal Justice in Enugu State” since 2011. The aim of the intervention is to identify root causes of delays in the criminal justice system and support the development and implementation of cross-sector solutions, involving state actors (police, ministry of justice, prisons, judiciary, legislature, etc.) and non-state actors (civil society organisations; traditional rulers, etc.).

The first phase of the project which ended in March 2012 involved a series of consultations with justice sector stakeholders to identify the ‘root causes’ of delays in the criminal justice process and develop a range of potential solutions. Stakeholders consulted included criminal justice organisations, civil society organisations, defendants/prisoners and victims. Based on these consultations, six priority ‘project’ areas were identified to be implemented by the respective agencies with the support of J4A. These projects were designed to be implemented as pilots to test the viability of the approach and to enable them to be fine-tuned where necessary. The programme is designed to be supported by the Enugu State justice sector to replicate the projects more broadly to extend the impact across the state.