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.
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.”