The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, has called for more funding for the Ministry to ensure improved performance in 2024.
Fagbemi said this on Monday in Abuja, when he reviewed the 2023 budget performance of the Ministry and defended the 2024 budget at the Senate Committee on Judiciary.
The ministry received an allocation of N3.3 billion for capital expenditure and N4.6 billion for recurrent expenditure in 2023.
The AGF said that with less than 30 days until the end of 2023, the Ministry had only gotten releases of N617 million for capital expenditure and N2.734 billion for recurrent expenditure.
This, he said, had greatly affected the performance of the ministry.
AGF said the ministry was determined to achieve a paradigm shift in 2024, saying that it allocated N5.3 billion for capital expenditure and N8.8 billion for recurrent expenditure in the 2024 budget.
The minister urged the committee to support the ministry, as it was fundamental to driving the current administration’s roadmap for the justice sector.
Fagbemi said legal and judicial reforms were vital priority areas under the president’s eight-point agenda.
“In order to ensure the security and confidence of the judicial officers, coupled with the location of the trial, the Ministry is required to charter aircraft to airlift them.
”The ministry is also spending considerable resources on the provision or upgrading of infrastructural facilities at the various venues to make them fit for purpose,” AGF said.
