The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court introduced the Express-Affidavit System in 2023. This method of obtaining affidavits, the court said, is aimed at boosting transparency, efficiency, and speed, aligning with global best practices.
The move also sought to safeguard litigants’ and court users’ interests, shielding them from exploitation by touts and fraudsters, and reducing delays and expenses.
How the E-affidavit process works
Affidavits are sworn statements used to verify information or facts. Through the FCT High Court website, one can access the Affidavit portal and follow three steps to apply for an affidavit. The steps are: create an account, apply for an affidavit, and print the affidavit.
According to the court, the system allows individuals and organisations to apply for and process affidavits without needing to physically visit the court.
However, while payment for the affidavit is N2000 excluding the bank charges, some court staff now ask for extra N1000 from the deponents who come to obtain the affidavits, NewsNGR has discovered.
The introduction of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Identification Number (NIN) by the Federal Government has created a need for many Nigerians to reconcile their documents, thus increasing the demand for affidavits, meaning more extra cash for the court staff that engaged in the extortion.
For example, court staff in Kubwa and Bwari usually request for additional N1000 from applicants after they’ve paid the main fee which is N2,000 through the Affidavit Registry Management Systems.
The staff claim that the extra fee is for renting printer and purchasing diesel to generate electricity.
“We hire printers,” one of the staff in Kubwa told this reporter when she visited the court to obtain an affidavit for her misplaced SIM card.
While discussing the cost of the affidavit with a staff of the court, this reporter was presented with two options – to pay through her ATM card, the sum of N2,180, with an additional N1,000 which amounts to N3,180, or pay N3,000 cash.
Once the affidavit is ready, the court staff would ask the deponent to photocopy the form and submit it to the court.
Stressing the need for the collection of extra money from affidavit applicants, one of the court staff said:
“Look at this generator,” he said, pointing to the large power-generating unit beside the building where photocopies were made. “We have no diesel, but we must work. It’s inconvenient for people traveling from afar, only to find we can’t print their affidavits due to the power outage. We’ll have to ask them to return another day. That’s why we’re taking these measures,” he explained.
Investigation begins
Now, these discoveries prompted a thorough investigation into the practice of charging extra monies for affidavit at the FCT High Court; to determine whether or not there are certain “unwritten laws” that support such a practice.
NewsNGR put a call across to a phone number, 0803 600 2739; obtained from the FCT High Court’s website, and a male voice responded to the reporter’s enquiry, saying that a deponent was not expected to pay more than the stipulated amounts.
To verify more, NewsNGR visited the FCT High Court in Maitama and found attached to the gate of the court, a huge banner warning deponents not to pay more than the stipulated affidavit fee of N2000, and urging them to report any person who collects more than the said amount to the appropriate authorities.
At the time this reporter visited Maitama, it was already 3 pm, and the two security guards she met at the gate who were clad in white uniforms, informed her that it was too late for her to get an affidavit and that no one would attend to her.
“You can go in and check,” they told this reporter.
The High Court’s interior wore a serene and orderly outlook. On the wall hung another banner like the one at the gate. There were two or three desks where payments for the affidavit could be made. Next is another room with about seven people whose job was to attend to the affidavit applicants. All seven of them had their laptops to work with, unlike at the Kubwa court where only one desktop was available.
This reporter was however not attended to even though it was just about N3:00pm.
“Go and beg any of them if they would attend to you,” the lady security operative said; but the people in the room were adamant, claiming that they were all busy even though they were clearly not busy.
Back at the gate, one of the security men approached this reporter and one other woman.
“If you are in a hurry, I can get someone to do it for you, but it will cost you N5,000,” he said, not minding the do-not-pay-more-than N2,000 banner on the gate.
But this reporter opted instead to come back the next day.
The next day when she returned, the process for the affidavit application was seamless. She made a payment of only N2,000, and was attended to by one of the people in the room, and viola, the affidavit was printed. No one asked for extra money for printing.
Visit to Bwari High Court
However, at the High Court in Bwari, the story was different. The modalities were just the same as those at Kubwa. On stepping into the office, one of the court staff asked for this reporter’s mobile phone.
“Bring your phone,” the staff member, who this reporter later identified as Emma, said. The deponent’s personal phone was usually used by the court staff to create an account for them on the affidavit portal. But this reporter, who already knew why she was asked to present her phone, told him that she had some issues with her internet connection and couldn’t log in.
Emma would later leave for an urgent assignment and Maria, another court staff, would then take over. When she heard that this reporter’s phone was having issues, she decided to use her phone to create the account.
And then she asked for payment.
“If you use your ATM card, you have to give us N1,000 extra,” she said.
When asked why, she explained that it was because she used her own data to fill the reporter’s affidavit, and that “besides, we hire a printer,” she said just like the Kubwa staff.
This reporter transferred the N3000 to her account and the affidavit was printed. NewsNGR has the receipt of the bank transfer.
NewsNGR later visited the Court in Kubwa to be certain that the “additional N1000” practice was still ongoing, and it turned out that it was still ongoing. The reporter approached one of the staff, Nasiru, who gave out ‘queue numbers’ to deponents for the purpose of maintaining orderliness in the process, and asked for the price, and he still said it was N3000.
NewsNGR further placed a recorded phone call to one of the deponents she had earlier met in court to confirm if he had paid the same N3,000, and he promptly confirmed that he had paid the same amount for his affidavit.
“I paid N3000. If you move inside the court, just ask for Nasiru or Lucky,” he had explained to this reporter who asked him about the modalities to follow to depose an affidavit.
Back to FCT High Court
Armed with these discoveries, NewsNGR returned to the Maitama High Court again to ascertain why the court staff at the suburbs charged extra money for their services. Was it to hire a printer as they claimed? NewsNGR had earlier called the S.A. to the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, one Mr. Seyi, who after listening to her mission, referred her to the Chief Registrar. At the registrar’s office, this reporter was taken to the Director and Head of Commissioners for Oath Department, Mrs. Lawal Funmilola Bosede.
Discussion with Mrs. Lawal
Mrs. Lawal, this reporter was told at the Registrar’s office, was on a mission to ensure that unsuspecting Nigerians are not extorted by opportunists and jobbers, with regard to affidavit production.
“That is why we have that banner on the gate and even inside. I also printed those banners for Kubwa and Bwari. There is supposed to be a banner there,” she explained to this reporter who had explained her mission.
However, there were no such banners in sight at the two courts visited by this reporter.
Lawal said that apart from the banner sensitization she has put in place, she also goes unannounced to the courts to ensure that they abide by the rules.
While insisting that her staff would not collect more money than the stipulated amount, she put a phone call across to the staff at both courts and they vehemently refuted the allegation of extortion.
Lawal on the phone, warned that if any of her staff is caught extorting innocent Nigerians, they would face the disciplinary committee.
“Get me proof and I will deal with whoever is concerned. It is your words against them. Now they are all denying,” she said, dismissing the claim that her staff were extorting unsuspecting deponents.
“Record them and get their names. I know their voices,” she added.
She narrated how one of the photographers who used to take passport photographs at the court gate nearly extorted a youth corps member, and how she had ensured that such an occurrence never repeated itself.
On the issue of renting of printers, Mrs. Lawal who expressed shock over the issue, said that the management of the FCT High Court always ensured that even toners were made available to the courts even they get exhausted.
“So where is all this talk about hiring printers coming from,” she queried.
Mrs. Lawal had refused to grant the reporter a proper interview.
Back to Kubwa
Following the Director of Oaths’ threat to the court staff, NewsNGR returned to the Kubwa court the next day to see if the warning from the superior officer had triggered any changes, and as was expected, there was a change as the court staff had reduced the extra payment by N500.
This reporter met a visibly-agitated man who was sent from the bank to the court to depose to an affidavit of age declaration. The bank staff had told him that the cost of the affidavit was N2000 only for him to get to the court to be told that it was N2,500.
“When they told me the amount was ₦2,500, I insisted that I had been told ₦2,000 at the bank, and they refused to process my affidavit,” the man complained. “Even after I agreed to pay the ₦2,500, the official still refused to attend to me.”
The court staff, however, attended to the man after he had been urged by other applicants to consider the agitated man. The man, after he had been attended to, hurried off as he hoped to be attended to at the bank.
What can be done to stop extortions in court?
Speaking on the issue, Barr. Jerry Ombugadu Musa of the J-K Gadzama LLP, Abuja Office, explained that though the official fee for an affidavit differs from court to court, and from state to state, no law authorizes anybody to charge outside the amount that has been specified for the affidavit.
Musa, who among other things, specializes in Dispute Resolution and Legislative Drafting/Advisory, stated that to prevent extortion of any kind, electronic processes for affidavit production should not only be introduced but made to work.
“Once you reduce the human interface, you reduce the advent of extortion because extortion requires two human beings meeting and one with the position of power for that to happen,” he said.
He spoke of the need for the citizens to educate themselves on issues bordering on judicial processes, adding that only this would help the citizens promote transparency and accountability in the judiciary.
By doing so, citizens, he said, can better understand their rights and navigate the legal system.
“There is a lot of illiteracy about the judicial processes. Some people believe that the judges are appointed by the president like the ministers, which is entirely wrong. I don’t hear all these from people in the village, I hear it from people who have Masters and PhDs from other fields. People who are enlightened, have gone to school, and have conceivable years of service, public and private business people.
“Once you don’t have general knowledge of how the judiciary works, there is no way you can contribute to that system, let alone promote transparency and accountability. Once you start, you are going to miss your way because you don’t even know what platform you are on in the first place,” he said.
Also speaking, another Lawyer and Principal Partner, De Lex Consult, Barr. Oluwaseyi Arowosebe, urged Nigerians to embrace the digitalisation of the affidavit process which he said will curb extortion of any kind, to a large extent.
“Again, there are phone numbers that the public can reach out to when an extortion is about to happen or has happened already. That will help fight this,” he noted.
This report was supported by the Civic Media Lab.