By Stanley Onyekwere
In order to ensure sustainable and rapid development, the FCT Minister, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike has reiterated commitment towards ensuring the provision of infrastructure, before approving land allocations in Abuja, the nation’s capital city.
The minister said it does not make any economic sense to allocate lands to people in areas that are not accessible to the allottees for possession and actual development.
He spoke yesterday when he received the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court (FHC), Justice John Tsoho, in Abuja.
Responding to Justice Tsoho’s request to the minister for consideration of the judiciary in the allocation of lands, said the government will allocate lands in places that are accessible for development.
Wike who affirmed his eternal respect for the Judiciary and the Legislature, said he believes in the equality and independence of the three arms of government.
According to him, President Bola Tinubu had already mandated him to provide lands to key officials in the three arms, saying he is developing a template that would see the allocation done in phases.
“Like you rightly said, I believe that the three arms of government must work together even though independently and I believe that no arm of government should be treated lesser than the other.
“Without the judiciary, our democracy cannot survive. Nigerians are talking about the judiciary today because of the role you play and so whatever is required to strengthen the judiciary is not over-demanding.
“Before now, the President had given me the go ahead to allocate lands to the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. What remains now is how it should be done because the number is much. What we have decided to do is to do this in phases. All cannot be done at the same time.
“Some allocations were done in the past but unfortunately, some of the places are inaccessible. I think it is baseless allocating land where people have no access, that is, infrastructure. It does not make any sense. So, we will allocate lands to you in places that are accessible”, he stressed.
Earlier in his remarks, Justice Tsoho commended Wike for his continued support to the judicial arm of government, saying as governor, the welfare of judicial officers in Rivers became the envy of their counterparts in other states.
He said Wike’s great antecedents in Rivers must have earned him this current position.
“I commend Your Excellency’s bias for the judiciary and you have always seen it as your primary constituency. The welfare of the Rivers state judiciary was second to none and you raised the bar so high that it became the envy of judicial officers in other states.
“It is with that confidence that we bring the anguish of the FHC to you. The peculiarities of our job due to transfers takes us to several places. Consequently, we are denied various forms of policies for enhancing welfare of judges since we are not part of the judiciary of those states and failure to cater for our interests at the Federal level makes us stateless.
“I kindly urge your excellency to use your good offices in allocating landed property to FHC judges. We appreciate our large number and recommend that this be done in batches, scattered across the FCT”, he stated.
Justice Tsoho also notified the minister of the golden jubilee celebration of the Federal High Court which is slated to take place in December.
