2019 Budget: Justice Ministry Has No Allocation For Constituency Projects, Says Apata SAN

The Minister of Justice on Wednesday maintained that it has zero
allocation for alleged constituency or zonal intervention projects
in the 2019 approved budget.

The Permanent Secretary of the ministry and Solicitor General of
the Federation (SGF), Dayo Apata (SAN), made the clarification in a
statement issued to newsmen by Dr Umar Gwandu, the media aide to
the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of
Justice Abubakar Malami.

The clarification, which was contained in a letter dated
December 3, 2019 and addressed to the Chairman, Independent Corrupt
Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC), according
to the SGF is necessary to correct media reports about the ministry
on the issue, which he said “is erroneous and misleading
vituperation of vilification”.

Referring to the letter, the statement said: “The attention of
the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice has been drawn to a publication in a national daily on
Monday, December 2, 2019 wherein the Federal Ministry of Justice
was alleged to have inserted the sum of N2.7 billion in its 2019
Appropriation for Community Projects.

“The report, according to the letter, prompted the reaction and
rebuttal of the said misleading publication and to as well avail
you the authentic data at our disposal which is in harmony with the
2019 Appropriation by the National Assembly for the Ministry.”

The permanent secretary said for the avoidance of doubt, it was
of paramount importance to state categorically that the Federal
Ministry of Justice has no constituency project in its budgets as a
ministry.

However, he said after thorough investigation on the matter, the
ministry came to realise that two agencies under its supervision —
the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person
(NAPTIP) and National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (NDLEA) — have
provisions for constituency projects due to their statutory
functions.

“While NAPTIP was allocated N110 million, NDLEA has N766.46
million which amount to N2.1 billion as against the N2.7 billion as
mischievously exaggerated by the media.

“It needs to be reinstated for emphasis that the Federal
Ministry of Justice, in its own right, has no allocation for
constituency projects in its 2019 budget.

“The budgets of statutory parastatals under its supervision in
that respect was unduly overblown,” he said.

Apata further said it is imperative to state that the stated
amount is not contained in the 2019 budget of the Ministry of
Justice and the attention of the ministry was never aware of such
allocation.

“The intendment of the letter is to substantially establish that
the sum mentioned in the aforesaid publication is at variance with
the statutory allocation of the ministry in the 2019 budget.

“Unfortunately upon the said publication, this office was
inundated with series of enquires, questions and news reporters
requesting for clarification. It would have been more appropriate
if your good office had first sought for our clarification on the
issue before going to the press,” the permanent secretary had
written to the ICPC.