J.O. Odion

This essay examines the customary court of Appeal in Edo State, with emphasis on the contending issues arising as to the precise scope of its jurisdiction. The issue of its jurisdiction has become even more topical now, in view of the increasing importance of the Area customary Courts, over which the Customary Court of Appeal is supposed to play a supervisory role in the legal system. The Area customary Courts are now saddled with a bloated workload arising from its enhanced civil and criminal jurisdiction. Since Appeals ordinarily are supposed to move from these area Customary Courts to the Customary Court of Appeal, it is easy to assume that the latter’s jurisdiction will be determined by the scope of the jurisdiction of the former. Yet this has not been proven to be so in recent times. Palpably, one of the reasons that could be advanced for this is that the customary court of appeal is expected to share its appellate jurisdiction with the relevant State High Courts. In fact, it has often being assumed that the customary courts of Appeal and the State High Court are of co-ordinate jurisdiction. Yet it is equally, possible that it is the desire to guide whatever is left of its “limited” jurisdiction that the customary court are often reluctant to allow appeals from its decision to the “regular” court of Appeal. With this kind of scenario it is clear that problems of jurisdictional conflict may be difficult to resolve even in the face of recent contributions by all stakeholders towards an explanation of the true position. It is proposed in this essay to examine the statutory and constitutional provisions regarding the establishment of the customary court of appeal, with specific emphasis on the rationale for its establishment, its status vis-à-vis the high Court and the Court of Appeal with a view to unraveling its “expected and desirable” jurisdiction.