ATTORNEY-GENERAL of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, has urged litigants in the country to embrace Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as a way of decongesting the nation’s court system.

Adoke stated this at the 7th Justice James Adesiyun Memorial Public Lecture in Ilorin, Kwara State on the 15th of this month.

He observed that ADR was not particularly alien to the African judicial system, as was effectively used in the past to resolve serious disputes.

Adoke especially recommended ADR to litigants for being a less expensive and quick approach to settling their disputes.

The AGF, who was represented at the colourful biennial lecture by Director General, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN), however, distinguished between disputes that could be resolved via the ADR and those that could only be resolved through the conventional courts.

He listed the instances in which the ADR could not be used to include "'where definitive interpretation of the law is required; where definitive interpretation of the law is required; where definitive interpretation is required; where constitutional interpretation is needed for purposes of public policy; where interests of non-parties to the dispute must be protected; where government entities must be held accountable.

Adoke added: "Cases involving a gross disparity in bargaining power such as cases involving spouse or child abuse are also not appropriate for ADR."

Abiodun Fagbemi, Ilorin