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The Chief Judge of Nasarawa State, Justice Suleiman Dikko, has appealed to state governments to grant financial autonomy to the judiciary to facilitate smooth dispensation of justice in the country.
TheNewsGuru.com confirms that Justice Dikko was speaking in Lafia, during the 2017 Lafia Appeal/Call-over session to review cases already decided by lower courts.
Inadequate finances, the Nasarawa Chief Judge noted is frustrating efforts towards building the capacity of judges and other supporting staff of the judiciary.
“Judges that were supposed to attend national and international conferences over the years, could not do so due to lack of funds.
“We have not been able to promote staff for quite some time, while allowances due to them are still unpaid.
“We were forced to use our overhead vote to pay officers promoted in 2016 to avert industrial action by Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) and Magistrates Association of Nigeria (MAN).
“The implication of that one year promotion is that the salary figure went up by N3.5 million monthly; with the paucity of funds, implementing another promotion will be impossible,” Dikko said.
The Chief Judge, however, warned judges of lower courts and other staff against indulging in corrupt practices as anyone caught would be sanctioned.
The Chief Judge had earlier inaugurated a five-man appeal panel to review the 155 criminal and civil cases already decided by lower courts. 53 of these cases are criminal, while 102 are civil.
Nevertheless, Mr Dikko warned that review of the criminal cases may be delayed due to the ongoing labour strike since the prosecuting officers were staff of the justice ministry