Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says President Bola Tinubu attached importance to the welfare of judiciary staff towards institutionalising justice in the country.
Wike, who stated this during the groundbreaking billion naira construction of the Abuja Division of Appeal Court Complex at Daki-Biyu in Abuja, stressed the need for the judiciary to be appropriately transformed to enhance the sector.
The complex is the first that would be built by a minister of the FCT 48 years after the creation of the capital city, with 16 past ministers who never looked in their direction.
The minister said Tinubu has graciously approved N30 billion of the 37 billion in the 2024 budget and promised to deliver the edifice by September 2025 Legal year.
He also said the president has approved 40 houses for the top judiciary officers, 10 for the Court Of Appeal, 20 for the FCT High Court and 10 for the Federal High Court, and retirement homes for the presidents.
Wike also clarified that no area council chairman have power over any land in Abuja.
In his remarks, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, said that care for the judiciary is core to justice and promised to ensure the edifice is well utilised upon completion.
He lauded the numerous support the Judiciary had received under the present Renewed Hope Agenda and, like Oliver Twist, solicited that the members of the Supreme Court should be equally considered.
The attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, who expressed concern that the Judiciary, which used to be the hope of the common man, has become a thing that only the rich can afford, said the complex will be a place where truth prevails and the rights of the people protected.
The president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, while commending Wike for starting what he promised, said the edifice would facilitate a smoother dispensation of justice in Nigeria, pointing out that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere in the world.
Earlier, the president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Maikyau, expressed gratitude to Tinubu and Wike for beginning the complex they had been expecting 48 years after the creation of FCT, with 16 former ministers who never looked in their direction.
Maikyau, who believed that people could exist without religion but could not exist without justice, urged the court justices to be like eagles and stay focused on administering justice to the citizens.