Welfare of judges in Gombe worrisome, NBA tells Gov. Yahaya

The Nigerian Bar Association, Gombe State branch has decried the poor welfare of judiciary officers in the state, describing it as worrisome.

Benjamin Sati, the NBA chairman in Gombe, stated this in Gombe on Monday while speaking to journalists on why his association commenced boycotting of court proceedings in the state.

Sati said that some the reasons for staying out of courtrooms were tied to the poor welfare of judges and magistrates and the poor funding of the judiciary arm of government in the state.
He said there was urgent need for the state government to pay attention to the welfare of Judiciary officers for the sake of efficient service delivery and to prevent judicial corruption.

“Some of our judges are still using vehicles that were purchased for them at the time of their appointment in 2010.
“Some magistrates ride motorcycles or take public transport to court.

“They travel alongside the very criminals they prosecute or sentence. Meanwhile, executive and legislative officers receive brand-new vehicles every four years.
“Our judges are in deplorable conditions. They deserve better, especially given the enormous power they wield.

“A high court judge or a magistrate holds the authority to detain or release individuals.
“ If such officials are not adequately taken care of, the risk of corruption and compromise becomes very high,” he cautioned.

Sati said the poor welfare of judges was a major reason for the relocation of the Court of Appeal Division in Gombe to Maiduguri in Borno State.

He said that over the years, judges at the division had complained about their poor welfare, threatening to relocate the court out of the state.

He said that now that the court had been relocated, it would impact negatively on the state generally.

According to him, the citing of the Court of Appeal in Gombe State has reduced by 80 per cent cost implications by litigants who would have had to go to Jos or Yola to attend to the cases.

He said that since the volume of cases coming to Gombe Division of the Court of Appeal, was more than those from Borno and Yobe States put together, he insisted that the court shouldn’t be relocated from the state.

Sati called on Gov. Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State to do all that were needed to ensure that the court is retained in the state.

When a team of journalists visited the Ministry for Justice in the state, the State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Zubairu Umar, was said to have been attending to some official matters outside the ministry.

However, the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Muhammad Ismail, said, “ only the Attorney-General can speak for the government.

“The only message he (Umar) said I should deliver to you is that he has no case with the NBA; in other words, he said and I quote “ I don’t want to join any issue with the Nigerian Bar Association,” he said.”

Our correspondent reports that the NBA in the state on Monday began a two-week boycott of all court sittings to protest alleged neglect of judges and judicial workers’ welfare in the state.

During the period, the NBA members across the state will abstain from all legal proceedings as part of its campaign to get urgent intervention from the state government.