Federal ministry of Justice has proposed the sum of N11.8 billion Naira as its budget estimate for 2022 fiscal year.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, announced this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Justice to defend the ministry’s 2022 budget proposal.
Abubakar Malami said out of the budget estimate, the sum of N3.5 billion was earmarked for capital expenditure, N3.9 billion for personnel, N2.1 billion for overhead while N2.5 billion for legal services.
The Minister explained that the sector was currently undergoing reforms but lack of sufficient funds had been the major hindrances affecting administration of Justice in the ministry and parastatals under it.
He said the ministry had been on the mandate of recovering looted assets and monies recovered have been deposited into the government’s treasury, thereby increasing the revenue profile of the government.
According to him, to this effect there were large sums of illicit money stashed abroad which ministry was working at close quarters with ICPC and EFCC to effect recovery and bring them back to Nigeria.
The Attorney General, however, appealed to the House to support the efforts of the ministry by allocating some part of the recovered funds to it to finance the recovery operations for more result.
Earlier, the Chairman House Committee on Justice, Ogunna Ozurigbo lauded the effort of the ministry in the area of looted assets recovery and assured significant improvement in its 2022 budget for enhanced operations.
TSIBIRI SALIHU