N110bn budget for judiciary inadequate – Reps

The House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary on Monday described the 2021 budget of N110bn for the judiciary as inadequate.

Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Onofiok Akpan Luke and his members said this at the presentation of the 2021 budget estimates and overview of the 2020 performance by the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the National Judicial Council.

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Executive Secretary, National Judicial Council, Gambo Saleh, said the NJC was advised to reduce its initial proposal of N188bn for 2021 to N110bn because of the envelope given to it.

‘‘At the instance of the executive and coupled with public outcry for a fast efficient judicial system, the Supreme Court of Nigeria was made to increase the compliment of that court to twenty including the Chief Justice.

“We were promised a special intervention and that intervention is yet to come,” he said.  He said the recent #EndSARS protest resulted in the destruction and vandalisation of many court rooms across the country.

“So for us to be able to get the court back to work, we’ll require a lot of funding. Please, do consider increase in funding of the Nigerian judiciary that will be a great service to this country,” he added.