Nigeria’s judgement debts rise to N150billion

Sanni Onogu, Abuja

The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, on Wednesday said the country’s judgement has risen to N150billion.

Malami who spoke while defending the Ministry’s 2020 budget estimates before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, in Abuja, said the debts arose from bad cases, contract failures, damages and especially court fines over human rights abuses.

He said  the country is presently faced with “hydra-headed challenges in meeting up with its obligations.”

Malami  however urged the Senate to appropriate an extra N30billion to the budget of the Ministry of Justice to enable it service its debts annually.

The total budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Justice in the 2020 fiscal document is N33billion.

The AGF also requested that a commission of 2.5 per cent of the total recovered loot should be given to the Asset Recovery Unit in his office to enable it meet its enormous obligations.

Speaking on the judgement debt,  Malami said while the N10billion was paid in 2017, N150 billion remained unpaid, prompting beneficiaries to mount severe pressure on the Ministry.

He also called for the establishment of a Criminal Justice Administrative Commission to help improve the nation’s justice system.

Malami said: “The paucity of funds remain a notorious challenge. Regardless, we shall not relent on what we have set out to accomplish largely because the rule of law is undoubtedly the pillar of democracy the world over.

“The rule of law is good and noble but greatly capital intensive. At the home front, judgement debt kept mounting, threat to peace, breaches of the peace, outside aggressions and allied reprehensible violence, extremism have all combined to constitite suffocating legal challenges with attendant mounting financial demands in servicing them.”