The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, on Monday, quizzed the officials of the Ministry of Justice over N2 billion it plans to spend on legal services in 2021.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, Solicitor-General of the Federation, Adedayo Apata and other ministry’s officials appeared before the committee to defend their 2021 budget proposal.
In the document submitted to the panel, the ministry, under overhead cost, said the sum of N2 billion would be used to pay for legal services.
The money, it said, was proposed for civil litigation, prison decongestion, trial and prosecution of Boko Haram, administration of criminal justice system and payment for international legal obligations.
But a member of the panel, Senator Ajibola Basiru (APC, Osun) said the N2 billion proposed for legal services was not clear enough to avail auditors at the committee for the purpose of exercising its oversight functions
“We need to know how much is being projected for civil litigation, for prison congestion and all other items in that regard.
“Also, there appear to be an overlap with what has been provided for the sum of about above N2 billion for generated items under overhead cost and some of the items listed as capital expenditure.
“For instance, there is provision of N350 million for administration of criminal justice in Page 4. What is the relationship between that N350 million budgeted and the projected sum under the heading of legal services in the overhead cost proposal?
“The same thing with the issue of prison decongestion. If you look at the capital expenditure proposal, the sum of N380 million was highlighted for prosecution of prison inmates and decongestion of correctional centres nationwide. How much of that will then not be overlapped between what has been budgeted for over N2billion as part of legal services,” the lawmaker said.
Responding, the Solicitor-General of the Federation, Dayo Apata, said the amount was “a tip of the ice berg of what it intends to do” on civil litigations and “cannot be compared with what it is now saving from government.”
He said: “The last performance we had, we saved over N600 billion because we now do cases in-house. So, part of this N2 billion is essentially to get the lawyers…because all the cases are spread among the 36 states.
“The trial and prosecution of Boko Haram: you will recall that last year, we had to create a jurisdiction, a division in Kanji Dam in which 3000 inmates were prosecuted. How do you prosecute 3000 inmates in a place? We had to bring four judges from the federal high court, and pay the legal aides.
“When we look at the N2billion, it’s a tip of the ice berg of what it intends to do.
Presently, there is a camp in Maiduguri which we are going for another prosecution. This is what the N2 billion is going to do. So, there is no overlapping.
“When you now look at the specific activities of the N2 billion, they are separate and distinct from what you think.”
Earlier, the committee’s chairman, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti) had raised the alarm that Nigeria’s judgment debt profile has reached an alarming and embarrassing state.
The lawmaker, however, expressed hope that the adequate provision had been made in the ministry’s 2021 budget to address the judgment debt profile before it goes beyond control.
