Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Enugu State Multi-Door Courthouse (ESMDC) has said it mediated in 411 cases in 2022, resolving families, individuals and groups’ conflicts.
The Neutrals Programme Coordinator, ESMDC, Mr Benjamin Aneke disclosed this while analysing the Mediator Performance Report during a parley organised by the courthouse with Mediators in Enugu.
Aneke said that within the period, 113 cases were referred to them by courts while number of walk in cases were 298.
He encouraged the mediators to do more in 2023 to surpass what was achieved in 2022.
On her part, the Director of ESMDC, Mrs Caroline Etuk, said the court was set up by Enugu State Government in 2018 for conflict resolution management through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).
She described Multi-Door Courthouse as court that had more than one option for conflict resolution, adding that “One doesn’t have to force himself/ herself through one door which is litigation.
“It provides other mechanisms that one can explore like arbitration, mediation and initial evaluation and hybrid processes.
“You know, anything that is not litigation is alternative dispute resolution, which is what the center provides,” she said.
Etuk said that the programme started in Lagos in 2002, which was the first experiment of Multi-Door Courthouses in Africa, and ESMDC is number 14 or 15 in the line of Multi-Courthouses in Nigeria.
According to her, the essence is to expand the ambit of access to justice by allowing people to have many doors to justice.
The director said that residents could walk in for any case around them to be resolved at the court.
“if you have problem with your landlord, your neighbor, your family or property problem, whatever it might be, you bring the matter to the Multi-Door Courthouse, the matter is resolved,” she said.
Etuk said the parley was partly a get together for ESMDC and mediators where they talked about issues that concern them and how to make their services better.
Mr Uchenna Anioke, a Neutral with ESMDC, while urging mediators to study more, said they had a way of building and sustaining relationships.
He charged them to maintain high professionalism and confidentiality in their chosen career.
A participant, Appolonia Agbo, noted that their major challenge to timely delivery of their services was delay tactics and resistance by lawyers.
