Court Strips Pres. Jonathan of Authority to Approve Judges’ Salaries

A Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday ruled that in accordance with a 1999 constitutional amendment, the President has no power to approve funds for salaries or any form of expenditure for the judiciary.

This ruling was delivered in a suit filed by former president of the Nigeria Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, Vanguard reports.

Henceforth, funds for the  judiciary will be released to the National Judicial Council (NJC)  for disbursement for the needs of the various courts across the country.

The court stated that “the continued dependence of the judiciary on the Executive Arm of government for its budgeting and release of funds was directly responsible for the present state of under-funding of the judiciary, corruption, poor and inadequate judicial infrastructure and low morale among judicial personnel.”