The Enugu State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Peter Mbah, has committed to full autonomy of the state judiciary as part of his administration’s institutional reforms, if elected.
Mbah also pledged to ensure law review, digitalisation of courts and case management, as well as access to justice by vulnerable members of society through efficient legal aid regime, and upgrade of correctional facilities to make them true correctional centres.
The PDP governorship candidate stated this in Enugu, yesterday, at the opening ceremony of 2022 Law Week of the state branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), tagged, ‘The Role of Lawyers in Transitional Democracy.’
Mbah said: “I consider myself first and foremost a lawyer. So, after the elections; after we must have won and done what we promised to do, I will still ultimately and essentially remain a lawyer.
“So, as part of our strategies to actualise our vision for the state, we propose transparent and inclusive governance, which will see us strengthening our institutions, which include the judiciary, the public service, and, of course, the security agencies.
“Under the judiciary, we intend to review our laws so that they will be in line with requirements of modern times. We are going to constitute a high-powered committee that will review our laws to make sure that they are in tune with modern realities, dynamics and global standards.
“Strengthening the judiciary also means that we will ensure full financial autonomy for it in line with amendments to the 1999 Constitution. So, we will work with the Chief Judge of Enugu State and the Ministry of Finance to put in place mechanisms that will ensure full financial autonomy for the judiciary.
“If you look at our programmes in our manifesto towards strengthening our institutions, we propose to digitise our courts, and case management processes.
“Access to justice is also an area we are equally interested in. Our proposed legal aid regime and procedure will ensure that the vulnerable in our society have access to justice.”
We intend to review the process of remanding the accused in correctional facilities. We must also make sure that our system ensures that correctional facilities are truly correctional centres, rather than a place for terrorising the vulnerable in our society.”
Mbah also reiterated his determination to deploy disruptive innovation and creative alternative financing models to actualise his economic blueprint to transform the state from a public sector driven economy to a private sector-driven economy and grow the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the present $4.4 billion to $30 billion in eight years, which he described as modest.