By Odimmegwa Johnpeter, Abuja
Following the initial disruptions on the conduct of Court sessions by the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020 which affected sixty cases which had been scheduled for both hearing and judgment, the ECOWAS Court of Justice has invested USD 345,126 on IT infrastructure to facilitate virtual court sessions.
Addressing Parliamentarians in a goodwill message at the opening ceremony of the 2020 virtual Second Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament, the President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, Honorable Justice Edward Amoako Asante stated that “the Court realized that in a post COVID-19 world, it was imperative to migrate to the virtual technology infrastructure in order to continue to discharge its role. Consequently, it had to invest a significant portion of its resources in virtual technology with the first virtual session of the Court held on Monday, 22nd June 2020.
He said, “As part of the process for deploying the virtual technology, the Court had to align its Practice Direction with the new reality with the concomitant benefits of ensuring the safety of judges and staff; Although a fallout of a pandemic, the deployment of the technology and the new practice direction had other benefits including the timely and efficient disposal of cases”.
Highlighting key areas of the invested funds, Justice Edward said that the USD 345,126 dollars was spent mainly in “the Purchase and installation of Video Conferencing Equipment; Purchase and deployment of fourteen (14) Laptops and Accessories including Servers, Routers, Switches, Backup Solutions, Wireless Access Points etc.; Purchase and installation of an Inverter System to provide backup Power Supply and thus guarantee continuous power supply during Court sittings; Purchase and installation of SOPHO S FIREWALL and Anti-Virus Solution; Purchase and installation of Microsoft 365 used by all ECOWAS Institutions; and Increased the Internet Bandwidth”, He said.
Continuing, He said that “the deployment of the technology and the new practice has brought about the uninterrupted Court sessions and Court related operations despite the outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic; Improvement in turnaround time for Court hearings; General improvement in the management of case files, recording of sittings and the speedy delivery of judgments.”
“This project enabled the Court to fully function in 2020 despite the outbreak of the COVID-19 outbreak, Savings on legal costs consisting of travel air tickets of Litigants, Agents, Lawyers and Witnesses as well as logistics and hotel costs; The benefits of no personal contacts between the Bench and the Lawyers, Agents Litigants and Witnesses with the attendant infectious risks” he added.
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