Digital disruption: Stakeholders chart path for AI-driven justice system

By Henry Ojelu

The Nigerian justness strategy is lasting astatine the borderline of a integer frontier. With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, AI, e-filing platforms, integer lawsuit management, and the increasing menace of cyberattacks, judges, lawyers, and lawmakers are being forced to face questions that spell beyond the law.

At the 2025/2026 Lagos State New Legal Year Summit, held connected Tuesday, the country’s ineligible elite gathered nether 1 extortion to statement however champion to harness exertion without undermining justness itself.

The temper was clear-technology has arrived astatine the courthouse steps, and it is not asking support to enter. But with the committedness comes peril, information breaches, manipulation of evidence, algorithmic bias, and the frightening anticipation of hackers holding justness hostage.

Technology indispensable service justice, not regularisation it — CJN

In her goodwill message, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, underscored the urgency of charting a cautious path. She was emphatic that the ineligible assemblage cannot proceed to run arsenic if integer disruption were a distant possibility.

“Technology is nary longer an enactment for a justness system; it is an imperative,” she declared.

But her code was not celebratory alone. The CJN issued a sober informing that breaches of data, manipulation of records, and exploitation of judicial portals could fatally erode nationalist assurance successful the judiciary.

For her, integrity remains the bedrock upon which exertion indispensable beryllium laid. “Technology indispensable service justice, not go its master,” she stressed, calling connected some the Bar and the Bench to recommit to fairness, impartiality, and accountability successful bid to usher this caller era. Without those values, she warned, exertion could rapidly crook from servant to master.

Lagos cannot spend to lag—Sanwo-Olu

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Lawal Pedro, SAN, aligned with the CJN’s position.

Lagos, helium noted, is simply a metropolis that thrives connected speed, commerce, and changeless movement. Its courts cannot spend to beryllium dilatory successful an property of instant transactions and integer banking. Technology, helium argued, is indispensable for keeping Lagos courts businesslike and responsive. But helium besides sounded a enactment of caution: “If tribunal systems tin beryllium infiltrated by malicious actors, past the sanctity of justness is endangered.”

The politician pledged continued concern successful infrastructure, training, and integer tools for judges and magistrates. His connection was simple: the authorities authorities would not permission the judiciary stranded successful a integer tempest without the instrumentality to sail through.

No flight from AI—Lagos CJ

In his opening remarks, the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, framed AI not arsenic a prime but an inevitability.

“There is nary flight way for america from the usage of AI, which is present all-pervading globally,” helium told participants.

While acknowledging the efficiencies AI could bring, helium warned of imaginable fraud and manipulation wrong ineligible proceedings.

“We cannot tally distant from it. We volition person to unrecorded with it. AI is changing astir daily, and if we bash not support pace, we hazard being overwhelmed,” helium stressed.

For Alogba, the situation is twofold: embracing AI’s benefits portion ensuring the ineligible assemblage is not blindsided by its dangers.

Law astir people, not algorithms—Prof Fagbohun

The president of the event, Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun, SAN, a prof of Environmental Law and erstwhile Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, offered a philosophical but applicable perspective.

“The instrumentality is yet astir radical — not files, not codes, not algorithms, but people.Technology indispensable stay the servant of justice, and ne'er its master,” helium declared

He acknowledged that successful an property of AI and rising cybersecurity threats, absorption was an understandable instinct — but it was not a sustainable response.

“Adjudicators and lawyers cannot spend to basal connected the sidelines of technological change. We indispensable pb not with fear, but with foresight,” helium urged.

Fagbohun laid retired what helium called “g...