The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary, Rep. Luke Onofiok (PDP-Akwa Ibom) has called on the Federal Government to approve intervention funds for the Judiciary.
Onofiok made the call when the management of the National Judicial Council (NJC) appeared before the committee for the 2022 budget defence session on Wednesday in Abuja, said this would enable it meet its competing demands.
He commended the Federal Government for listening as it concerns the Judiciary, and raising the statutory allocation for the arm of government from N110 billion to N120 billion in the 2022 budget.
“And so with this, we appreciate the FEC for this gesture; we want to still put on record that, even though there is a competing demand in the Judiciary, there is a need to put in place a better working condition for our judicial officers.
“We need to put in place technology that will make our courtrooms be in line with what is obtainable in other climes, this is making the sum appropriated inadequate.
“We will continue to clamour that the Federal Government should have an intervention fund for the Judiciary.
“`We have intervention fund for sports, we have intervention funds for youths, we have had intervention funds for entertainment, it do not think it will be out of place for the Federal government to have intervention fund for the Judiciary.
“We believe that this is the only way the Judiciary can meet up with its competing demands facing the judiciary as we go on,’’ he said.
The chairman said that of great importance to the committee is the issues of the security of our judicial officers, stressing the need for enabling environment, good living condition and security for their operations.
Onofiok called on all Nigerians to work to ensure a judicial system that is free, fair and independent in discharging its duties.
He said that the committee was leading a campaign to review the salary and remuneration of judicial workers after 14 years, calling for the cooperation of all stakeholders for a better welfare.
“We want to condemn the attack on the residence of Justice Odili’s residence, a justice of the Supreme Court and we ask that this should not repeat itself; it happened in 2017, this should not be allowed to repeat itself because we are weakening the morale and strength of our judicial officers.
“Whichever side of the divide we find ourselves today, weather the privilege few today, someday along the line, we will appear before the courts.
“In this country, we have seen judicial officers appear before courts when they do not think they will appear, we have seen governors, rep members, senators, we have seen privilege people appear before court.
“So if we do have a good, impartial and independent court, the day we have a day in court, we will be faced with the kind of court and judicial system we have prepared for ourselves.
“So we should all rise in unison and condemn what is condemnable, we should rise in unison to support our judicial officers, to be able to provide them security, good living working condition so that they can discharge their duties,’’ he said.
The Executive Secretary, NJC, Mr Ahmed Saleh, commended the committee for clamouring for the improve funding for the Judiciary, pledging to put the additional fund into judicious use.
On the 2021 budget performance, Saleh said that a total of N110 billion was approved and as at October, 80 per cent of the funds have been released and 73 per cent has been implemented.
He, however said that the rapid depreciation of the naira and exchange rate of the naira to the dollar posed serious challenges to the budget implementation on projects with foreign components.
Saleh said that provisions have, however been made in the 2022 budget to close the gap and complete affected projects in the next fiscal year.
The executive secretary said that in the 2022 budget, N16.83 billion was proposed for salaries of state judicial officers while N5.93 billion is for gratuity of retired judicial workers.
He said that N32.2 billion is for personnel cost of the Federal Judiciary and N23.8 billion is for capital expenditures while overhead is N31.6 billion and N200 million for service wide vote. (NAN)
