By Francis H. Murray
The judiciary of Sierra Leone headed by Chief Justice (CJ) Desmond Babatunde Edwards has sworn in seven new judges as acting High Court Justices and also promoted three other judges to the Court of Appeal.
At a ceremony held in the chambers of the Chief Judges on Friday 11th December 2020, the newly appointed judges to the High Court: Justices Aggrey Aruna, Adrian Fisher, Francis Banks-Kamara, Mohamed Bawoh, Hannah Bonnie, Abdul Sheriff ,and Abu Bakarr Sannoh took their oath of office together with Justices Michael Mami, Tonia Barnett and Samuel O Taylor who got promoted to sit on the Court of Appeal.
Explaining the reason for the appointments, the CJ noted that more judges are needed if the issue of access to justice were to be addressed properly.
He said that the lack of judges in some parts of the provinces had resulted in the holding of criminal sessions which he said had been very helpful, but calls for more to be done.
‘‘We may need more judges if we’re to address the issue of access to justice properly. Now we have a situation wherein in the provinces we do what we call criminal sessions. It has been helping and from the results we’ve gathered, it is that people in the provinces could feel the judiciary in the provinces but we want more access,’’ he explained.
He went on to note that there’re now going to be in a situation wherein there’ll be resident judges in Kenema, Kailahun, and Kono, adding that same will be replicated in Port Loko and in Kabala to add up to Makeni, which only has a resident judge in the Northern Region.
Admonishing the new appointees, the Chief Justice Edwards urged them to take the jobs seriously and to work hard, describing their new appointments as a challenge.
‘‘It is a new challenge, for those of you that are now acting as Appeal Court judges, you were High Court judges but now you’re to act as Court of Appeal Judges in addition to any job that you may be doing in the High Court. For those of you that are coming in as acting High Court judges, you were never before High Court judges, an opportunity has been provided. It is a challenge which is there to spur you on to being the substantive holders of those positions. I expect that you’ll work very hard,’’ he noted.
In his response, Justice Mami used the occasion to admonish his colleague appointees to be ready for what he described as a daunting task ahead of them, and to have passion for the job in dispensing justice to all and sundry.
Court of Appeal judge Ansumana Ivan Sesay also admonished family members to help the new appointees for them to be able to dispense justice to all without fear or favour, citing what he referred to as conflict of interests and family pressures.
Justice Hannah Bonnie assured the gathering that they will work hard so as not to let the justice system down.
Supreme Court judge Justice Alan Halloway also congratulated the appointees and urged them not to think that they have monopoly over knowledge in dispensing their duties, but always seek advice in areas where they face difficulties.
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