BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – Acting Chairman of the Investments and Securities Tribunal (IST), Hon Jude I. Udunni has blamed lack of capacity among stakeholders in the capital market for the challenging cases currently before the tribunal.
He therefore says continuous capacity building for litigants and counsels is required to effectively address technicalities associated with handling cases at the court.
Udunni said being a specialised sector, litigants and counsels must upgrade their knowledge of capital market operations in order to adequately tackle issues relating to frequent lost of market cases in court based on technicalities.
According to him, the “capacity of litigants and counsels need to developed because of the technicalities of the capital market”, adding that; “lack of knowledge has led to litigants losing cases.”
He urged “solicitors and litigants to up their games so that cases are won on merit not technicalities.”
The IST Chairman said to address this inadequacy, the tribunal “has tried to build the capacity of its users (litigants and counsels) as well as staff of the tribunal.”
Udunni explained that the tribunal has already organised three sensitization programmes since 2017 even when it is not within its purview to build capacity of litigants and counsels.
Noting that staff of the Tribunal are also suffering from the capacity inadequacy, the IST boss said the Tribunal has moved to address this challenge by sponsoring staff within and outside the country to boost their capacity.
He said despite obvious constraints, the tribunal has not relented in its capacity building efforts, disclosing that transcribers are now being trained outside the country,
On how to proceed with cases delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Udunni admitted that the tribunal was in a fix as the enabling law mandates the Tribunal to conduct its proceedings in such a manner as to avoid undue delays.
Consequently, he said the “Tribunal must dispose of any matter before it within three months from the date of the commencement of the hearing of the substantive action.”
Udunni said the COVID-19 lockdown has not only left the Tribunal with a backlog of cases to adjudicate, but also how to continue and conclude cases already begun given the lapse in timeline to conclude such cases.
The Chairman, who disclosed that the IST is engaging with stakeholders to navigate safely out the dilemma brought upon it by COVID-19, assured that the Tribunal is; “poised to dispense judgement speedily.
“The Investments and Securities Tribunal is a specialized fast-track civil court with the mandate for the resolution of cases arising from investments and securities transactions, in a timely, transparent, efficient and cost-effective manner.”
He said IST is wired to speedily dispense justice through the Administrative Proceedings Committee (APC), adding that the benefits of IST over the years include “its well-thought out judgments and decisions which have been able to establish necessary benchmarks for capital market operations.”
Udunni said the Tribunal has also entrenched “a unique jurisprudence for the Nigerian Capital Market, by sanitizing the market, influencing policies and engendering law reforms.”
The judgments “have not only had positive impacts on policies and reforms in the market but the IST model is today a template for Capital Market adjudication. This assertion has been variously validated by the affirmation of most of its judgments and rulings by the Appellate Courts”, he said.
