Monday, December 21, 2015

How to frustrate the right to appeal

It's really hard to appeal a court-martial if you cannot obtain a copy of the judgment. Consider this excerpt from a report concerning Nigerian Air Force courts-martial:
A Kaduna based legal practitioner, Barrister Biola Oyebanji has alleged that the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) General Court Martial (GCM) is frustrating the right of appeal of his clients by denying them access to a judgment delivered by the court recently. 
Barrister Oyebanji who is a leading defending counsel to six Air Force officers who are charged for age disparity, said the Nigerian constitution provides the provision that all judgments made by any court must be made available to all the counsels in the matter within seven days. 
He said that the GCM when approached by him for an interlocutory judgment, said they could only release such judgment with the permission of the conveners of the court which is the chief of air staff. This, according to him, is a "breach of the constitution".
A similar issue has arisen in Pakistan recently. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are subject to moderation and must be submitted under your real name. Anonymous comments will not be posted (even though the form seems to permit them).