Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has threatened to sue the Federal Government over the distribution of newly built luxurious homes to judges in Katampe, Abuja.
He stated that the gesture was discriminatory and illegal and that legal action was imminent.
Falana said in a video shared by NewsCentral on Thursday, criticizing the federal government for granting exclusive housing advantages to judges while excluding other types of public personnel.
He stated that he was troubled after seeing television footage of the handover ceremony and that he could not locate the exercise inside any known law.
“We have got to a stage in the country where we need to challenge the special privileges given to the rich and top public officers in the country.
“Yesterday, I was watching the TV; I was very sad when I saw that the federal government was handing over the keys of houses to judges, and I asked myself under what law we are operating, because it’s discriminatory and illegal. You must treat us equally in our country,” he said.
The lawyer explained that his problem was not judges obtaining accommodations but the unfair treatment of other public employees, whom he believed deserved equal consideration.
“You can’t take out judges. Judges are entitled to accommodation, by the way. They must live comfortably; they must work securely, but other citizens must be equally provided for,” he said.
Falana said that the arrangement will soon be challenged in court, claiming that the government could not grant such benefits to one class of officials while disregarding others.
“If you don’t do it, you can be challenged, and that is going to happen very soon, because what is good for the goose is good for the gander,” he said.
He used university lecturers as an example, stating that professors who provide vital services to society are underpaid and often do not have access to staff quarters.
“If you have a professor who also has to render services to society, and those professors are not paid well, nobody talks of providing houses for them now. They were living in rented quarters. These days, there are not enough quarters for them, so we must also look at that,” he said.
He also cited around 21 governors who are now serving in the National Assembly, claiming that they continue to receive legislative salary and allowances while maintaining housing privileges in both their states and Abuja, as opposed to long-standing federal officers who retire with nothing.
“Governors who are in the National Assembly, about 21 of them, are taking salaries from the National Assembly and jumbo allowances, and they are also entitled to a house in the state where they govern for four or eight years and another house in Abuja. And you have a civil servant who has worked for 35 years, and he’s just turned out at the end of the day,” he said.
Falana stressed that equality before the law must be respected across the board.
“So, we must insist that equality before the law in our country is respected,” he said.
The housing project is part of an FCT Administration initiative under Minister Nyesom Wike to construct 40 judges’ quarters in Katampe, with batches already commissioned by President Bola Tinubu for Federal High Court and Court of Appeal judges.
Wike has stated that the houses would be allocated on an owner-occupier basis, subject to the president’s approval.
