The Ministry of Justice has proposed N2 billion to cover its legal services for the 2021 fiscal year, an amount the solicitor-general of the
The Ministry of Justice has proposed N2 billion to cover its legal services for the 2021 fiscal year, an amount the solicitor-general of the federation, Dayo Apata, described as small when compared to what it is meant to do.
The legal services include civil litigation, prison decongestion, trial and prosecution of Boko Haram criminals, administration of criminal justice system and payment for international legal obligations, he disclosed. Of the N2 billion, about N350 million was budgeted for the trial and prosecution of Boko Haram criminals
Apata appeared before the Senate committee on judiciary, legal and human rights matters, on Monday, to defend the ministry’s 2021 budget proposal. The panel had queried the duo for duplication of items in the budget submitted.
Ajibola Basiru, the Senate spokesperson and member of the panel, noted that some line items listed under overhead cost also appeared in the capital budget. He also said the proposed N2 billion legal services is not definitive enough to avail auditors at the committee the purpose of exercising oversight functions.
“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. 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?”
In his response, the solicitor-general did not really clarify the duplication but explained that the N2 billion has been budgeted for a lot of expenses. He said since 2015, the office of the AGF has been doing almost all the cases inside without going out for external solicitors.
“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.”
With regards to 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.”
