By Abubakarr Harding
Supreme Court Judge, who also doubles as the President of Judicial and Legal Training Institute, Honourable Justice Emmanuel Ekundayo Roberts was elected Vice President of the West African Region of Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges’ Association.
It should be noted that in the past Sierra Leone could not even contest or present a candidate because the Judiciary was not fully paid up. Courtesy of the current leadership the Sierra Leone Judiciary is now fully paid up and Sierra Leonean Judges and Magistrates can now participate and be recognized.
In 2019, the current Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards had to settle on behalf of the Judiciary over 10 years none payment and today the institution continues to pay their subscription fees.
Hon. Justice Roberts defeated candidates from Nigeria and Ghana. He is the first Sierra Leonean to hold such a position.
This is not the first recognition bestowed on Hon. Justice Roberts. Recently, Judges of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone in a plenary meeting in The Hague, Netherlands elected Justice Pierre G. Boutet to a two-year term as Residual Special Court President and Supreme Court’s Justice Emmanuel Ekundayo Roberts as Vice President.
Justice Boutet now succeeds Sierra Leone’s Justice Jon Kamanda while Justice Emmanuel Ekundayo Roberts succeeds Justice Teresa Ann Doherty.
Justice Roberts was appointed a Roster Judge of the Residual Special Court in 2013. He became a Judge of Sierra Leone Supreme Court in 2014. He had previously been a Judge of the Court of Appeal.
He received his LLB from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, in 1989 and his BL in 1990 from the Sierra Leone Law School. From 2003 to 2007, he worked as a Legal Consultant at the Law Officers Department in Freetown. Since 2005, he has also been a Lecturer in Civil Procedure at the Sierra Leone Law School. In 2010, he was made a Fellow of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
