Anglican Diocese to establish court in Anambra

Formal administration of justice for parishioners of the Diocese on the Niger (Anglican Communion) in Anambra State is to commence at the Bishop’s Court, Onitsha.

The Bishop, Diocese on the Niger, Rt. Rev. (Dr.) Owen Nwokolo, disclosed this during a plenary on the third day of the synod of the Diocese at St. John’s Anglican Church, Eziowelle, Idemili North Local Council of Anambra State.

He said that the court’s normal sessions, which were expected to take off in September this year would assume every form of adjudication proceedings, as is the case in conventional courts.

No member of the Diocese, according to him, will take a fellow parishioner to public court until the matter has gone through the Diocese’s court. If they do that, Nwokolo said, “we will bring you back. You will be asked whether you have followed the Diocesan procedure as enshrined in the Diocesan constitution.”

He explained that the Chancellor of the Diocese, Barrister Nnamdi Ibegbu and his legal team have drafted the court rules that will be operating like the civil court with a judge, a witness dock and all other things provided in civil court.

“If you want to sue anybody, the rules will guide you. Once it commences operations, any judgment received there is binding,” he said. He told the parishioners that after the court is commissioned in September if they had any case, they could bring it to the court ‘because it is a righteous court.’

Confirming arrangements for the court operations, Barrister Ibegbu, said that the Diocesan Court would operate like an arbitration court, adding that any judgment or decision given there would be registered in the court as a judgment and executed fully as a judgment obtained from the High Court. He added that judgment of the court would be taken seriously, as it would be binding on the litigants.