Govt Lawyers Frown At Growing Interference With Judiciary’s Independence

* Lament rising cases of judicial officers kidnap

By Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

Lawyers in the employment of the federal and state governments
and their agencies have expressed displeasure about rising cases of
interference in the operations of the Judiciary by the other arms
of government.

The lawyers, under the aegis of the Law Officers Association of
Nigeria (LOAN), also expressed displeasure about the growing
security challenge in the country and urged the Federal Government
to take necessary steps.

They frowned at the increasing number of judges kidnapped, the
inability of the state to promptly effect the release of the
kidnapped Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Chioma
Nwosu-lheme, and called for special security arrangement for
lawyers involved in the prosecution of cases for the
government.

These are contained in a communique issued at the end of LOAN’s
4th Annual General Conference, held in Abuja between November 3 and
7, 2019.

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LOAN encouraged other arms of government to give the Judiciary free
hand and the needed independence to carry out her constitutional
responsibilities without fear or favour.

It called on both the federal and state governments to take
action and assign security protection to law officers, as well as
security allowances as is obtainable in other climes.

Part of the communique reads as follows:

“The Conference noted with concern the state of insecurity in
the nation and condemned the wanton destruction of lives and
properties orchestrated by terrorists, herdsmen, kidnappers,
bandits, armed robbers and the likes in the nation, and called on
the Federal Government and security agencies to put in place
measures to stamp out these anomalies.

“The conference received with shock the news of the kidnap of
Honourable Justice Chioma Nwosu-lheme (PhD), a Justice of the Court
of Appeal and Honourable Justice Abdul Dogo of the Federal High
Court, which was recently released by his captors.

“The Conference therefore called upon the Federal Government to
put every security apparatus in motion to ensure the immediate
release of the Justice of the Court of Appeal, who is still in
captivity.

“The Conference also holds its heart out to the family of the
slain Police Orderly to Honourable Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme
(Phd), who was gruesomely murdered by the kidnappers of the said
Justice.

“The conference urged all Nigerians to be security conscious and
proactive through timely report of security threats and breaches to
the appropriate security agencies.

“LOAN describes as false the view that the Federal and States
Ministries of Justice are not revenue generating agency and
reiterates that apart from saving government revenue from judgment
debts, Ministries of Justice also generate revenue from charges/fm
for vetting contracts, management of property by the
Administrators-General and Public Trustees, processing of fiats,
etc, and calls on governments (that are yet to do so) to set up
mechanisms to achieve this and other initiatives.

“LOAN resolved that a letter of commendation from LOAN be sent
to States that have implemented harmonization of salaries of law
officers and made significant strides in the welfare of law
officers; and appealed that states yet to implement the
harmonization of salaries and peculiar allowances of law officers
should do so without further delay.”

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