By Tina George, Minna
#TrackNigeria: Sokoto state Governor, Aminu Tambuwal has says the only way through which Nigeria could have a corrupt-free judiciary, is for government to give the judiciary full financial autonomy.
Tambuwal who was in Minna at the opening ceremony of the training of magistrates and District Court Judges in Niger state, said that only granting full autonomy would curb corruption in the judicial system.
He added that the independence of the judiciary is paramount to the administration and dispensation of justice in Nigeria.
“We should not expect our magistrates moving around and looking for help from whereever and expect them to administer justice without some kind of bias. For us to ensure that we have a corrupt free judiciary, there is need for us to do the needful.”
Tambuwal noted that as the last hope of the common man, the judiciary needed to have every available resources to carry out their job.
He called on all state governors to grant full financial autonomy to the judiciary in their various states.
“Judiciary is the last hope of the common man and we just to everything humanly possible as leaders in ensuring that the judiciary is fairly treated. If we do not give them training and findings, we should not expect them to perform magic because they are not magicians.
“I want to appeal to my colleagues in all states to grant full autonomy to the judiciary. If we do not do that, we cannot get an independent and impartial judiciary. For Nigeria to grow, we need to have an independent and corrupt free judiciary. “
Former head of state, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, who also spoke at the opening ceremony, called for improved welfare for the judiciary, stressing the need for government to also improve the working environment of the judiciary.
Abdulsalam lamented that the bulk of magistrate courts across the country were dilapidated and in need of repairs.
“People need to be well trained to dispense justice because without justice, there will not be able peace and what we need is peace in this country.”
Abdulsalam then commended Niger state government for coming up with the initiative of training Tier 4 Judges, saying it would go a long way in enriching the delivery of justice in the state.
Niger state Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello said the training will go a long way to help strengthen the rule of law and dispensation of justice in the state.
“The training will build their capacity and will help them keep up to date and learn new modern practices in the legal world. It is of utmost importance for our magistrates to be trained.”
He noted that his administration had maintained a robust relationship with the judiciary and have worked at ensuring that all their allowances are given to them as at when due.
Bello said he had granted the judiciary in the state financial autonomy which had enable them to be able to fix some of the dilapidated courts across the state.
Earlier, the Chief Justice of Niger state, Justice Aliyu Mayaki said the role played by the tier four courts in the judicial system is enormous as they are the courts closer to the people and are more accessible adding that their decisions are felt more by the people.
“These Courts, being courts of summary jurisdictions, handle larger percentage of criminal cases in our state. Decisions ematiating from these courts affect the Securitu, peace, harmony and stability of the community they operate in.
“The training will provide the court judges to learn new and modern way to tackle the current challenges through judicial activism. These challenges are not only peculiar to our state and as such, there is need to equip our judges and prepare them on the best global practice in handling these cases.”
The five days judicial training of Magistrates and District court Judges of Niger state had in attendance 80 Magistrates to enable them to be able to confront the new challenges confronting Tier four courts in the discharge of their duties.
The training will have resource persons from the Judicial College, London and the National Judicial Institute to train the magistrates and district course judges.
