By Abba -Eku Onyekachi
Abuja
Attorney – General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN has appealed to Nigeria’s 10th senate to assist his ministry in the area of budget allocation.
The Minister made the appeal at an interaction between his Ministry and the Senate Committee on Judiciary within the week.
Explaining the reason behind the appeal, the Minister said that in the outgoing budget cycle for 2023, the Ministry according to him was allocated N3,321, 283.533.00 as Capital Budget and N4,688,847,054.00 as Recurrent Budget, informing that at the moment, and 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.
According to him, the foregoing has greatly constrained the performance of the Ministry in its mandate areas, even as he said that they are 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 is the 2024 budget proposal.
Still praying the committee to empower the Ministry with further legislative and budgetary support, he said: “It is quite fundamental for the Ministry to be empowered to drive the current administration’s roadmap for the justice sector (legal and judicial reforms) which is one of the vital priority areas under Mr President’s eight Priorities/Focus Areas. The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (OAGF) requires funding to perform its role of coordinating and over – sighting the entire legal or justice sector institutions in Nigeria.”
He continued: “The AGF is also saddled with onerous responsibilities in the implementation of vital legislations, including the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022, Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015, Extradition Act, etc and other international treaty obligations.”
He added: “I wish to note that the process of proscription and prosecution of terror suspects and entities entails considerable funding inclusive of catering for the logistics and welfare of judges, prosecutors, support staff, witnesses, and provision of security for the trial, etc. 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 aircrafts to air lift them. The Ministry is also spending considerable resources on provision or upgrading of infrastructural facilities at the various venues to make them fit for purpose.”
