Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi is advocating increased funding for the Judicial sector.
The funds will cater for the chartered flight for Judicial officers handling terror suspect cases in the country in the 2024 budget.
Fagbemi who appeared before the Senate Committee on Judiciary , Human Rights and Legal Matters for 2024 budget defence on Monday added that the Ministry is currently defending 2000 cases, with huge potential liabilities on the Federal government.
He added that there were already backlogs of obligations which needed to be cleared in order to sustain the current efforts of the ministry in reducing governments’ exposure to judgment debts as well as ensuring that the implementation of government policies and projects are not hindered by litigation.
The Ministry budget as proposed by the Attorney General of the Federation is N14 billion, with N5.3 billion as capital expenditure and N8.8 billion as recurrent Expenditure.
The attorney general stressed that the ministry is involved in defending the country in international litigation and arbitration which are expensive to prosecute or defend in terms of payment of administrative fees to tribunals, professional fees to solicitors, and experts fees.
Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe
