Employ our people too - Edwenase chief appeals to CJ

The Edwenase Wiosohene in the Kwadaso Municipality, Nana Nkansah Ababio, has appealed to the Judicial Service to consider employing residents of areas where they set up courthouses.

This, he said, would serve as a source of encouragement to the traditional leaders to continue to release land for national projects.

He said aside these projects bringing development to their traditional areas, they should also serve as job creation avenues for the people.

He said rather than always transferring people from elsewhere to serve in districts where there are courts, the service should be able to employ at least one or two people from the area to motivate more chiefs to release lands for the construction of courthouses.

Crime rate

Nana Nkansah Ababio made the appeal recently during the inauguration of the Kwadaso Court House in the Ashanti Region.

He expressed hope that the citing of the courthouse in the municipality would greatly reduce the incidence of petty crimes in the area.

He said it was due to the enormous benefit the municipality would derive from the presence of the courthouse in the area that he did not hesitate to give out the land for the project, even though it was initially earmarked for a clinic.

Justice

Speaking at the inauguration, the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, said the opening of the courthouse at Kwadaso was part of the programme of the Judicial Service to bring justice to the door steps of the people and improve justice delivery in the country.

Notwithstanding the expansion of the court system in the country, the CJ urged lawyers and litigating parties to make use of the court assisted Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system to reduce backlog and ensure the speedy resolution of cases.

According to him, using the ADR system would ensure that parties maintained their relationship even after the case, as “there is neither a winner nor a loser.”

Gender-based court

Justice Yeboah said the new court would later be retrofitted to be used as a child friendly and gender-based court to handle gender-based violence cases.

He expressed his appreciation to the District Assembly Common Fund Administration, the Ministry for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development and the Government for supporting the dream and vision of the Judicial Service of bringing justice delivery to the door steps of the people.