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Magistrate Christina Barau presided over a mobile court during the Covid pandemic and liked it. With trials conducted on the spot and judgments delivered swiftly, these courts played a pivotal role in ensuring compliance with safety protocols.
The Nigerian police or pandemic task force made arrests, took the accused aside to a table at which a magistrate sat and filed a formal complaint. State lawyers instantly presented and prosecuted the case. The guilty were often fined, not jailed, and the expense presumably deterred them from breaching pandemic restrictions again.
Barau would judge as many as 100 cases a day. She was sometimes concerned that defendants didn’t always understand the charges brought against them and that judgments were rushed but the mobile court approach significantly reduced paperwork and cost, so she concluded it was a viable alternative to traditional court.
Other supporters of the approach said the mobile courts were expanding legal accessibility, particularly in remote areas. So, when the pandemic restrictions were lifted, the mobile courts stayed. They now largely focus on traffic violations.
Magistrate Safinatu Abdulkareem presides over one of the road safety mobile courts in Niger state and sees them as better than taking traffic offenders to brick and mortar courts.
“The traditional court will only waste time and hinder their journey. When they are being tried where they are being arrested and punished or fined, then they can proceed with their journey or business,” she said.
But such approving views rarely include the perspective of the people being tried. Defence lawyers are often absent from the proceedings and when they appear, there is little room for them to defend their clients.
“Everything in the mobile court is done summarily. The system doesn’t allow us, the defence lawyers, the opportunity. In the Covid‑19 pandemic, mobile courts sprung up across Nigeria to enforce public health measures. They have endured.”
But defence lawyers say they deliver more injustice than justice.
Supporters of the approach said the mobile courts were expanding legal accessibility, particularly in remote areas to respond to the claims adequately.
“The hands of lawyers are tied to either opt for settlement or see your client convicted,” said Sabiu Ahmad Bashir, a lawyer based in Abuja.
To examine the charges against their client, the defence lawyers often have only a proforma template filled in by a police officer — and no further evidence.
In a recent case, Bashir appeared in a mobile court for Gudu market traders who were being prosecuted by the Abuja market management agency. He began by denying liability and advising his clients to enter “not guilty” pleas.
But a few minutes later, he was ordered to instantly address the court with his clients’ defence as the judgment would be delivered in the same sitting.
“We decided to plead guilty and my clients were convicted and ordered to pay fines.”
Magistrates such as Barau and Abdulkareem say even when people are found guilty in such summary trials, the fines imposed are affordable and the guilty can just pay and be on their way.
That is often not the case.
In September 2022, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority auctioned more than 130 vehicles that had been impounded from offenders convicted and sentenced to fines by mobile courts. Unable to pay in the stipulated time, the convicted lost their property.
“We don’t expect thorough justice there,” Bashir said of the mobile courts. “They are only effective in the quick dispensation of cases.”
This article first appeared in The Continent, the pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy at thecontinent.org