A group, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, has lamented the poor funding of key government institutions, including the judiciary, in the criminal justice sector.
The group noted that due to poor funding many of the institutions were mainly relying on foreign aid for the substantial part of their operations.
The group, through its Executive Director, Auwal Musa, at a press conference in Abuja, decried the inadequacy of the budgets and yearly decline in the budgetary allocations to three specific government institutions – the police, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the judiciary.
Speaking through a member of the CISLAC’s governing board, Mr Adesina Oke, Musa said, “The lack of adequate resources for institutions, especially those in the criminal justice system is a sad reality.
“We now have agencies relying on foreign aid for substantial amounts to carry out their activities. In the last three years, there has been a decline in the budget of the NDLEA.
“For example, in 2015, the budget of the agency was 0.20 per cent of the national budget, around N9bn; 0.14 per cent in 2016, around N8.5bn; and 0.12 per cent, around N9bn in 2017.
“With about 5,000 officials, this budget is not sufficient for the agency and its various commands.
“Astonishingly, there has been a decline in the budget of the police force in the last three years. In 2015, the budget of the police was 7.16 per cent of the national budget.
“This budget is grossly inadequate to purchase basic equipment, not to talk of modern equipment for a force of about 370,000 personnel.”
He cited the World Internal Security and Police Index released in 2017, in which, he noted, it was stated that there were 219 police officers and men for every 100,000 Nigerians.
This, he said, fell far below “both the Index median of 300, and the sub-Saharan Africa region average of 268”.
Concerning the judiciary, Musa noted that “in 2015, the budgetary allocation was N73bn, representing 1.62 per cent of the national budget; while there was a decline in 2016 as the budgetary allocation dropped to N70bn, representing 1.15 per cent of the national budget”.
He noted, however, that “while 2017 recorded an increase in the budgetary allocation to the judiciary, which amounted to N100bn, it is important to note that this is still insufficient for effective and efficient administration of justice.”
He noted that despite that the amounts allocated to the agencies were insufficient, “most times, not all appropriated funds are released, especially for the Nigerian Police and the NDLEA that are not in the first-line charge.”
He called for the prompt payment of the complete salaries and allowances of police officers, adding that “law enforcement agents should not be forced to the street to protest for the payment of their salaries and allowances.”
“We, therefore, call on the government to increase funding to these institutions to enable these organisations to deliver on their mandates,” he said.
A former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Oyo State, Mutaulabi Adebayo, speaking from his experience while in office, noted that many Federal Government agencies were being poorly funded and were being forced to beg their host state governments for funding.
He said at times, state governments provided generators to power the building of federal institutions within their states.
“This is seriously affecting our democratic experience,” he said.
Other speakers suggested that the government should block leakages and address wrong prioritisation as a means of increasing funds allocated to the institutions.
The press conference preceded “a workshop with investigative journalists on improved reportage of the criminal justice system in Nigeria”.
The workshop was said to be part of CISLAC’s project titled, ‘CRIMJUST’, which is to run from 2016 to 2020 “and is currently being implemented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Interpol and Transparency International, with support from the European Union”.
The project is said to be aimed at strengthening criminal justice institutions to combat drug and organised crimes along the cocaine route from Latin America, the Caribbean to West Africa.
“As such, the Nigeria Police Force, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the Federal High Court have been selected as target institutions based on their mandates to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate on these core offences,” Musa said.
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