Feb. 19, 2024

The Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) says it has deployed speech-to-text devices to 58 courts in three states to enhance case management and court administration in judicial sector.

The Senior Programme Manager, PPDC, Mr. Kenechukwu Agwu, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

Speech to text device enables the recognition and translation of spoken language into text and it is used for quick and efficient court proceedings, ensuring judges no longer write in longhand.

Agwu said the beneficiaries of the devices were; 10 high courts and 25 magistrate courts in Kaduna state, nine high courts and seven magistrate courts in Plateau and five high courts and two magistrate courts in Nasarawa state.

He said the gesture became necessary due to the fact that over 70 per cent of detainees in the custodial centres across the country were on awaiting trials because of long process in court administration.

“In Nigeria over 70 to 75 per cent of our detainees in our custodial centres, what we call prisons are people, who are awaiting trials.

“People, whose trial have either not commenced or have commenced but has not been concluded.

“So, we looked at it and we say okay, how do we strengthen the systems to make sure that these things are actually tackled headlong.

“This was why the Centre thought it right to support the courts by providing the speech-to-test devices,” he said.

Agwu said the device had helped to revolutionise the transcription process by significantly increasing efficiency and speed.

Agwu also expressed displeasure over the lack of proper system of keeping files and records in most courts.

In addressing the challenge, he said the PPDC through its ‘Court Administration and Case Management Project’ initiative, had digitised court records management in five states

“If you have visited any of our court rooms, especially in the states, where we are working, you will find previously that files were just kept on heaps, some were kept under the staircase.

“In fact, we just returned from Plateau, the chief judge told us that before our project, it would take at least one month to find a previous record.

“For instance, you want to appeal a case for anything and you apply for the records, it will take at least one month or six weeks to even pick it out,” he said.

Agwu maintained that with the PPDC recent intervention in the states, such application for court records now takes a maximum of four minutes.

“Because what we have done is to digitise the record system, moved out all the physical records, so the chief judge does not need to be present in the state before a case can be assigned to the judge.

“All he needs to do is from his laptop or his cellphone, he has the records of all the cases that come in and how he assigns them,” he explained.

Agwu said that the Centre had also gone ahead to network these systems to correction facilities.

“So, we throw our virtual courses to them, what this means is that, we no longer need to bring prisoners or detainees from their locations to the courtrooms from wherever the judges are sitting,

“The detainee now uses the system in the correction centres to appear online in court and the issues revolving around security and logistics through bringing of detainees to court has also been drastically reduced,” he added.

Agwu said the devices also have the capacity and a great measure in reducing the workload and extra burden on the judges.

According to him, two of the Centre’s projects were being funded by U.S government through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL).

“PPDC is 20 years old, a non-governmental organisation set up in 2003, basically to ensure that there is transparency in the procurement system and that citizens participate in governance.

“But in 2022, we started the access to justice component of our organisation. We have three major components in the access to justice unit.

“The first is the Court Administration and Case Management, the second is the Pre-trial and Detention Reforms and the third is what we call the Order Justice Sector initiatives.

“We are currently in five states; Adamawa, Plateau, Nasarawa State, Kaduna State and FCT, he said.

Agwu disclosed that the Centre intended to extend its project to Lagos State once it secured an office in the state.(NAN)