Change of name, age declaration… federal high court begins online affidavit process

The federal high court (FHC) has commenced electronic affidavit (e-affidavit) for the benefit of litigants and other users.

In June, John Tsoho, FHC chief judge, introduced the e-affidavits into the court’s practice directions in line with global best practices.

During a facility inspection on Friday, Godwin Longe, deputy chief registrar of the Lagos federal high court, said the new technology can only process affidavits that are non-cases related.

“Affidavits filed to support a case are still done manually because of the peculiar disposition in such affidavits,” Longe said. 

He emphasised that with the online system, people do not “necessarily have to be physically present to procure the type of affidavits mentioned above”.

Agwu Charles, head of the court’s ICT department, explained how the public can use the innovation. 

“It is now a norm that the affidavit for loss of items, age declaration, change of name, etc can now be done via portal.fhc.gov.ng and following the instructors,” he said.

“What you just need to do is to log in to the site: portal.fhc.gov.ng.”