CJN urges cautious adoption of AI in justice delivery

By Henry Ojelu

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, has warned that exertion indispensable stay a servant of justness and not go its master.

She gave the complaint astatine the Lagos State 2025/2026 New Legal Year Summit, wherever the judiciary, lawmakers, and stakeholders examined the interaction of Artificial Intelligence, AI, and cybersecurity connected justness delivery.

Justice Kekere-Ekun said exertion had go indispensable successful modern courts, offering tools to amended ratio and access. 

However, she cautioned that the risks were significant, pointing to information breaches, manipulation of records, and misuse of judicial accusation arsenic dangers that could erode nationalist trust.

“Technology is nary longer an option; it is an imperative. But breaches of information and misuse of tribunal systems endanger the integrity of justice. Technology indispensable service justice, not regularisation it,” she declared, urging judges and lawyers to recommit to fairness, impartiality, and accountability arsenic the strategy adapts to integer change.

Representing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Lawal Pedro, SAN, assured that Lagos State would proceed to enactment the judiciary’s integer transformation. 

He described innovation arsenic indispensable for a metropolis with Lagos’ caseloads but warned that irresponsible usage could undermine justice.

“If malicious actors infiltrate judicial platforms oregon tamper with physics evidence, the sanctity of justness is endangered,” Pedro said.

 He pledged authorities concern successful infrastructure, digitalisation, and grooming to equip judges and lawyers for a technology-driven world.

Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, highlighted a legislative gap, noting that states deficiency powers to marque laws connected cybersecurity since it is connected the national government’s exclusive list. 

He described this arsenic a large weakness successful protecting residents from cyber threats and called for reforms to empower states to legislate successful this area.

Delivering the keynote, integer rights advocator Mr. Olumide Babalola drew attraction to AI’s power successful mundane beingness — from astute devices to self-driving cars — informing that Nigerian courts indispensable not underestimate its risks.

He narrated however his e-filing credentials were erstwhile hijacked by fraudsters to record bogus cases successful his name, describing it arsenic a “clear and contiguous danger” that required vigilance, auditing, and tighter safeguards. 

He besides pointed to examples from the UK, China, South Africa, Kenya, and Australia wherever AI has already been integrated into justness systems, stressing that Nigeria indispensable clasp innovation portion avoiding ethical pitfalls.

Earlier, Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Kazeem Alogba, stressed that AI had go an unavoidable reality. 

While acknowledging its imaginable to amended efficiency, helium warned that it could besides beryllium weaponised for fraud and manipulation wrong the courts.

“There is nary flight way from AI, which is present all-pervading globally. We indispensable hole ourselves to beryllium connected defender against its dangers portion harnessing its benefits,” Justice Alogba said, urging his colleagues to deepen their cognition of caller technologies.

Chairman of the Planning Committee, Justice Adedayo Oyebanji, described the acme arsenic an avenue to span cognition gaps and hole stakeholders for the integer age. 

She reaffirmed the Lagos judiciary’s committedness to transparency, efficiency, and planetary competitiveness successful justness delivery.

The station CJN urges cautious adoption of AI successful justness delivery appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.