The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, has attributed gains recorded in the justice sector to proper administration of technology.
He made the disclosure, on Wednesday , in Abuja, at an event tagged JusticeTechNG HACKATHON and Accelerator Demo Day.
The event which was organised by the Special Assistant to the President on Justice Sector Reform, ICT/Digital and Innovative Technology, Mr Fernandez Marcus-Obiene, in collaboration with JusticeTech Nigeria Ltd/Gte and Arravo Technology Ltd, attracted critical stakeholders in the justice sector as well as technology experts.
In his remarks, the minister stated that technology, when properly deployed, offered powerful tools in addressing issues relating to case backlogs in courts, delays that amount to denial of justice for many citizens amongst others.
While urging that its deployment must be intentional and carefully managed, Fagbemi stressed that users must respect due process and the rights of parties.
“It must protect privacy and prevent unauthorised access to sensitive information. It must recognise and preserve institutional roles rather than centralizing power inappropriately,” he said.
Stating that JusticeTechNG reflected this necessary balance between innovation and institutional integrity, the AGF claimed that under his leadership, the Federal Ministry of Justice has moved decisively beyond conversation to concrete action.
“We have taken tangible steps to embed technology into justice sector administration, not as an experiment or a showcase, but as a core operational capability. A key example that demonstrates our commitment is the implementation of the Electronic Content Management System (ECMS) within the Ministry.
“This system represents a significant public investment, reflecting the government’s recognition that building institutional capacity requires not only human resources but also technological infrastructure.
“The ECMS is aimed at fundamentally improving how we track documents, how we maintain institutional memory so that knowledge is not lost when personnel change, how we enhance efficiency in prosecutorial and advisory functions, and how we strengthen accountability by creating auditable records of actions and decisions,” Fagbemi said.
He maintained that ECMS was not a pilot project but one that was an operational reform, which was being integrated into the daily work of the Ministry and would become the standard platform for case management going forward.
In his welcome, Obiene who is the Special Assistant to the President on Justice Sector Reform and ICT/Digital and Innovative Technology, assured that the accelerator program tailored for the justice sector will outlive them.
While claiming that the move was in line with that of President Bola Tinubu, who believed in Nigeria investing in Nigeria businesses, Obiene said, “We are getting our people to invest more and participate more.
“We want justice centre and pectoral actors to show interest too. The outcome will improve credibility and access and make people buy into the vision. We are hoping that our people will invest more and participate more.”
Alex Enumah
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