Chief Judge of Cross River State, Justice Ikpi Itam, has called for adequate funding of the judiciary to enable it to discharge its duties more efficiently.
At the opening session of a three-day seminar for judges on capacity building and case-flow-management, Itam said the problem of under-funding had immensely affected the judiciary.
He said, "Doling out of some paltry amount to the judiciary every now and then, instead of a fair and imaginative funding procedure may always be too little and too late to impress the weighty and endemic issue of proper funding.
"To those officials of the state, who surprisingly always ask: how much revenue does the judiciary generate? I am sorry to say that they simply do not appreciate the peculiar position and the societal or public functions of the judiciary as the third arm of government."
Itam said the workshop was geared towards achieving the objective of how the society could aid, educate, encourage or compel a judge to hear and conclude as many cases as possible, fairly and expeditiously, without undue delay, expenses or trauma being suffered by him or her or the litigants or their witnesses or their loved ones.
He said the workshop organised by the state judiciary became necessary as judicial officers were the only ones in the country, who were not attending numerous important capacity building workshops and seminars organised by the National Judicial Institute for state judiciary officers nationwide, since the beginning of the year due to lack of funds.
The Punch