Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, yesterday, once again flayed the construction of houses for judges and justices by the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), saying the action is unconstitutional.
Speaking on a programme on Channels Television, he said the action is an embarrassment to the Judiciary which ought to maintain its independence as one of the three arms of government in Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today last night, Mr. Falana maintained that such action was not good for the Judiciary.
“As a member of the body of benchers, there is provision for it under the current democratic dispensation. There are three arms of the government, the Judiciary, the Executive and the Legislature. Each of them today enjoys financial autonomy; in fact, there are three judgments of the Federal High Court to the effect that the judiciary is financially autonomous.
One of them was obtained by my friend, and the other by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN). Those judgments were disobeyed. When President Muhammadu Buhari also tried to recognise the independence and financial autonomy of the Judiciary via Executive Order at the tail end of 2020, governors also went to court and the Supreme Court declared it illegal. But the National Assembly and all the states’ Houses of Assembly later amended the provisions of the constitution to declare in Section 23, that all the funds of the Judiciary every year at the federal level shall pass to the National Judicial Council (NJC).
“For the states, the budget of the Judiciary, the money would be given to the heads of courts.
“So, if you want to buy cars, build houses, they are to be carried out from the budget of the Judiciary. The minister did not answer the question which was to the effect that; can you give houses to the judges before whom you have cases? Because, justice must not just be done, it must be seen to have been done.
