Concerned about the continuous closure of courts and the consequent congestion in prison as well as police cells and in compliance with the directive of the national body of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) that the chairmen of all its branches effectively mobilise their members and pay visits to their respective State Governors to press home the demand for implementation of financial autonomy for the Judiciary, the Oyo State branch of NBA on Monday visited the Oyo State Government but were unable to see the governor.
The Oyo NBA comprising of the Ibadan, Oyo, Saki and Ogbomoso branch chairmen, the executives and senior members of the bar converged on the secretariat with a jointly written demand to request that the state government should ensure full compliance with existing legislative instruments and court judgments on the financial autonomy of the Judiciary.
The lawyers visited the Ministry of Justice where they were told the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice was not around and they dropped a copy of their letter, the same was done at the House of Assembly and the High Court Complex at Ring Road.
At the governor’s office, the lawyers were told by the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the governor that they cannot see the governor because they had no appointments and they were directed to go back to the Attorney General as he is the only one that can book appointments for them.
The lawyers tried to impress upon the CSO the emergency situation, the importance of their visit and the need to see someone that could attend to them if the governor was unavailable but their efforts met a brick wall as the CSO said protocol can never be broken but he received the letter and promised to deliver it.
Speaking on the inability to see the governor, Olayinka Esan, the chairman of Ibadan branch of NBA representing other branch chairmen from Oyo, Saki and Ogbomoso said “since April 6, the Judiciary Staff Union (JUSUN) in Nigeria have been on strike and all they have been asking for is the autonomy as enshrined in the constitution, the president has made the presidential order since May 2020 for the autonomy of the judiciary and till now, it has not been implemented by the states
“And what is happening here now is happening all over Nigeria, but here in Oyo State we have to deal with the governor, Engr Seyi Makinde that he should implement the directive of the order of the president as contained in the presidential order of May 20, 2020. We didn’t meet the Attorney General, he already communicated with me yesterday evening that he was out of town and will be coming back later today.
“We made an attempt to see the governor and the Chief Security Officer prevented us on the ground that we do not have an appointment and the governor can only see us on appointment. We tried to explain the importance of this visit and the fact that it is happening nationwide but he didn’t listen. Without an appointment, what we expected that the officers here should do is to inform the governor that we want to see him since we know he is in the office.
“But that has not happened and we are not sure the governor is aware that we are around but the CSO told us that he will not allow us except we are on appointment. We are going to come back because the directive from our national secretariat is that we will repeat this visit every Monday until something is done and we have autonomy for the judiciary. The judiciary, just like the legislative arm of government is a separate arm as created by the constitution.
“There is no need for the judiciary to be dependent on the executive. Our specific demand is the financial autonomy of the judiciary, we know that it takes procedure but they should start, the strike has entered the third week and nothing has been done, we cannot continue to wait; the prison are congested, even facilities at police stations are already stretched because the court are closed and people are taking laws into their hands. The courts just like the hospitals must never be closed at any point in time,” Esan stated.
The president of the NBA, Olumide Akpata, had directed all NBA branches to visit their state governors and demand for compliance with the provisions of the 1999 constitution on financial autonomy for their state judiciary. He had noted that from past occurrences, it has become apparent that most of the State Governments are not ready or willing to implement the constitutional provisions which grant financial autonomy to the judiciary.
He had further directed the chairmen of NBA branches to ensure that these visits are embarked upon, every subsequent Monday, until there is full compliance with this demand that is aimed at strengthening democracy and dispensation of justice.
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