Social Justice League (SJL), a non-governmental organization, has demanded for a speedy investigation into the allegations that judges and other judicial officers who were part of the just concluded election tribunals nationwide have not yet been paid their allowances.
In a statement which was signed by its spokesperson, Mr. Salisu Ibrahim and made available to DAILY POST in Abuja on Tuesday, the group expressed fears that equipment used at the various tribunals might have been frittered away.
The group said, the explanation became necessary in the interest of probity and accountability, adding that those items were still needed for subsequent election tribunal panels instead of wasting public funds at every election circle for new equipment.
The group also demands that “the President of the Court of Appeal, Honourable Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, should be asked whether or not equipment including computers purchased and used by the tribunal members during the just concluded election tribunals were returned to the Court of Appeal as government property or not. If they were returned, where are they?”
They further stressed that “there is so much injustice in the judiciary against non-Muslims judicial officers.
“There is undue politicization at the Court of Appeal designed to execute certain religious agenda which should be condemned totally and investigated.
“The League equally decries the gradual Islamization agenda in the judiciary saying that there is a need to probe the promotion of judicial officers under Justice Bulkachuwa administration”, it stated.
The statement also alleged that, “there is serious discontent in the judiciary, especially at the Court of Appeal over unpaid judges’ allowances, disappearance of computers after tribunal sitting, religious bent in judicial administration”, among other things.
It would be recalled that the President of the Court of Appeal, Honourable Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa constituted election tribunal panels to determine the petitions brought by political parties and their candidates that lost out in the different categories of the 2019 General Elections, including Presidential, Governorship, National Assembly and the State House of Assembly Elections conducted nationwide.
According to the statement, “Several judges and judicial officers are grumblings over the non-payment of their allowances during and after the tribunal. Some of the judges are said not to be happy that their welfare during the sitting was poorly handled. They are grumbling that so many of them were lodged in small and poor maintained hotels”, the group maintained.
“Some judicial officers who are afraid of speaking openly have been silently expressing their dissatisfaction with the President of the Court of Appeal, Honourable Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa over alleged non-payment of allowances approved for them. ”
