The Federal Ministry of Justice has proposed N2 billion to cover its legal services for the 2021 fiscal year.
ThisDay reported that the Solicitor-General of the Federation, Mr.
Dayo Apata (SAN) who stated that the amount is too small when compared
to what it is meant to do, said the legal services to be undertaken by
the ministry include civil litigation, prison decongestion, trial and
prosecution of Boko Haram criminals, administration of criminal justice
system and payment for international legal obligations.
Appearing before the Senate committee on judiciary, legal and human
rights matters in company of the Attorney General of the Federation
(AGF) MR. Abubakar Malami, to defend the ministry’s 2021 budget proposal
on Monday November 9, Apata said about N350 million out of the N2bn was
budgeted for the trial and prosecution of Boko Haram criminals.
Senate spokesperson and member of the panel, Senator Ajibola Basiru
who noted that some line items listed under overhead cost also appeared
in the capital budget, queried the duo for duplication of items in the
budget submitted. He added that the proposed N2 billion legal services
is not definitive enough to avail auditors at the committee the purpose
of exercising oversight functions.
Basiru said;
“Under overhead cost, you presented that the sum of N2 billion will
be used to pay for the ministry’s legal services. And the legal services
are listed to be civil litigation, prison decongestion, trial and
prosecution of Boko Haram, administration of criminal justice system and
payment for international legal obligations.
“There appears 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 N2 billion as part of
legal services?”
Responding to this, the solicitor-general did not really clarify the
duplication but maintained that the office of the AGF has been doing
almost all the cases inside without going out for external solicitors
since 2015.
Apata who also said that the N2 billion has been budgeted for a lot
of expenses, further insisted that the justice ministry has been trying
to reduce to the barest minimum the amount spent on civil litigations.
He said;
“If we are looking at the N2 billion, it cannot be compared with what
it is now saving from the government. Presently, from 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.
“On the trial and prosecution of Boko Haram, you will recall that
last year, we had to create a jurisdiction 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 iceberg 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.”
However speaking with journalists, the chairperson of the panel,
Opeyemi Bamidele said the committee is interested in knowing how the
2020 budget was spent to the last kobo and also get the justification
for what they are proposing for 2021.
On the proposed N2 billion, he said;
“There is a need for further explanation and documentation on the figure we have before us.
“The Boko Haram thing is a war of some sort being prosecuted by
Nigeria. It is not just the ministry of justice, all of our armed
forces, they are doing a lot of extra budgetary spending because when
you are prosecuting a war you deal with situations as they arise.”
On the legality of the freezing of bank accounts of some #EndSARS promoters, Opeyemi said;
"I read about it in the news, and my committee is exactly interested
in what is going on in this regard. But as it is I’m not in the position
to either defend or explain in this regard because it came to us as
news.”
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