Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday, stated that the judiciary arm of government in the country will be well funded.
The VP who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, at 2021 All Nigeria Judges’ Conference in Abuja, promised more funding to the judiciary to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad.
Muhammad had in his remarks at the event urged the federal government to sustain and provide more funding to support the judiciary.
President Muhammadu Buhari who was quoted by his Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande also stated that the Federal Government will continue to partner with the Judiciary to ensure its independence.
“As My Lords may recall, in my 2019 address to this gathering, I stressed the need for implementation of measures that will ensure speedy dispensation of justice in the country through the dual-track of removing administrative bottlenecks in the judicial process and adopting modern time-saving technology.
“Lessons learned during this difficult period of the pandemic have provided measures for achieving both goals. We have seen how the Judiciary has risen to the challenge. Practice Directions were issued by several courts for remote hearing of cases, electronic filing of court processes, service of hearing notices via email addresses and mobile phone numbers of counsel, and e-payment of filing fees; with relevant devices installed.
“These innovative approaches have, in addition to ensuring compliance with the Covid-19 protocols, ensured that the wheels of justice continued to move unhindered – in some cases even faster than what was obtained during physical hearings. Speed, efficiency, and effectiveness were attained. It aided in the decongestion of cases, did away with the obsolete method of physical filing, and ensured structured use of both judicial and administrative time and resources. Travel time to-and-from the court for litigants, counsel, and witnesses was no longer an issue, effectively minimising the need for adjournments,” the statement partly read.
