By Uche Amunike
The Osogbo Chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has implored the Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke, to increase the salaries and allowances of Magistrates and District Customary Court Presidents in the state.
Speaking, through a letter addressed to the Governor on October 3rd, the NBA also decried the infrastructural rots in High Courts and Magistrate Courts across the state, stating that most of the buildings where the Courts were housed were old and dilapidated.
In the letter addressed to Governor Ademola Adeleke and co-signed by the chairman and secretary of the association, Yemi Abiona and and Ibrahim Hassan, but released to newsmen on Wednesday, the NBA noted that the state had taken lofty strides, just to ensure that there are enviable conditions of service guaranteed for their magistrates, with regards to the delicate nature of their job and especially the need to insulate them from any kind of immoral or corrupt inducement and distraction.
The association further asked that Governor Ademola Adeleke should provide the Magistrates and Presidents of District Customary courts with official cars, maintaining that a lack of good vehicles for them tops the list of other necessities required to guarantee their welfare and optimal performance.
The letter further read: ‘Our concern as an Association of lawyers is borne out of the pride of place which the judiciary occupies in our noble profession and which the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has entrusted on the judiciary.’
‘As a corollary to the foregoing, we humbly appeal to Your Excellency to review upwardly the remuneration (salary and allowances) of the Magistrates and District Customary Court Presidents.’
The legal body also lauded the performance of the current administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke, since his assumption of office, describing it as marvelous, especially when compared with that of other states of the federation. They implored him to come to the aid of the Magistrates by lifting them of the murky waters of economic meltdown which was caused by the recent price hike of goods and services all over Nigeria.
Meanwhile, as part of his blueprint to make Osun State stand out, an inter-ministerial committee has been set up by Adeleke, to look into the construction of an international airport in the state.
During the inauguration of the committee in the Office of the Governor, Tuesday, Adeleke stated that the only state in the South-West zone of the country that lacked an airport, was Osun State. He tasked the committee to initiate, develop and actualize the plan towards kicking off the airport project.
In response, the committee chairman, Dr. Bashir Salami, thanked Governor Adeleke for setting up the committee and promised that the members will deliver their mandate promptly.
The proposed airport project, which is named, the Isiaka Adeleke International Airport, will be situated in Ido-Osun, in Egbedore Local Government Area of the state.
