The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, has appealed to Senate to approve more funds for the Ministry to enable it charter some aircraft to convey judges for their safety because of the high level of insecurity in the country.
The minister who spoke, yesterday, when he appeared before Senator Muhammed Munguno(APC, Borno North) led Senate committee on Judiciary, said: “In order to ensure the security and confidence of the judicial officers coupled with the location of the trial, the Ministry is required to charter aircraft to air lift them.”
The minister who raised the alarm over delayed releases for 2023 budget affecting performance, said that the ministry only got releases for capital expenditure in the 2023 budget on December 1, 2023, less than 30 days to the end of the fiscal year.
Fagbemi who noted that in the outgoing budget cycle for 2023, the ministry was allocated N3,321,283.533 as capital budget and N4,688,847,054.00 as recurrent budget said that with less than 30 days to the end of the financial year, the ministry has only had releases of N617,456,896.00 for capital expenditure and N2,734,110,775.62 for recurrent expenditure.
The Senator Munguno led committee was surprised at the revelations by the minister as they requested to know whether the budget had failed and would be pushed forward to the 2024 budget as there was no way capital projects could be executed less than 30 days to the end of 2023.
They asked the minister to take a bow and go as there is more work for the committee.
Speaking further, the minister said that the foregoing has greatly constrained the performance of the ministry in its mandate areas, adding that they were quite determined to achieve a paradigm shift in 2024, wherein the ministry has been allocated N5,341,356,849.00 as capital expenditure and N8,860,880,311.10 as recurrent expenditure in the 2024 budget proposal.
He said: “From my first-hand assessment of the justice sector upon assumption of office, it is obvious to me that a major challenge in the sector is underfunding.”
