It was a battle of wits, on Monday, in Benin City, Edo State capital, as hundreds of lawyers from the five branches of the Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA) in Edo State, were barred by security agents from gaining access to the Government in order to submit their letter to Governor Godwin Obaseki calling for financial autonomy for the judiciary.
The NBA members, led by the Chairman, Benin Branch, Pius Oiwoh, were drawn from the Igarra, Auchi, Uromi and Ekpoma branches of the union.
After waiting for over one hour, the lawyers matched to Edo State Council Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, where Oiwoh told journalists that their visit to government house was on the directive of the National President of the NBA, Olumide Akpata, who hails from Edo State, that they should present their letter of appeal to the governor to grant financial autonomy to the judiciary.
“We went there not on a protest, we were there on the directive of the NBA national leadership, but they told us that for security reasons, we cannot enter the government house that all the principal officers in the government house were not around. I do not want to believe that His Excellency directed what they did to us, however, after staying for over one hour, we decided to pull out of the place but a reassurance that by Monday next week, we will repeat the visit because that is the directive from the national leadership of the NBA that we continuously visit government house with this letter of appeal that the Constitution should be complied with,” Oiwoh explained.
“You will recall that President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2020 issued the Executive Order 10 mandating the Accountant General of the Federation to commence deduction from source, the funds accruing to the state judiciaries in the Consolidated Revenue Funds of the states and transfer same to the relevant heads of courts in line with the dictates of the Constitution,” he reiterated.
According to him, “We are very eager to see that the judiciary enjoys financial autonomy and once the judiciary enjoys financial autonomy, there will also be judicial independence”.
Receiving the lawyers, the Chairman of the NUJ, Sir Roland Osakwe, commended their efforts for the match, adding that members of the fourth estate realm supported the move for financial autonomy for the judiciary.
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