Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State says his administration has no problem with granting financial autonomy to the judicial arm of the government in the state.
Ganduje made the remarks during an interactive session with newsmen as part of the event to mark `Democracy Day’ in Kano on Monday.
“Judiciary is independence. Here in Kano, we have no problem with the financial autonomy of the judiciary, we have been paying the judiciary what they are supposed to be paid.
“They acknowledge that we are doing what we are expected to do,” the governor said.
NAN recalls that the state government paid more than N100 million as medical allowances to High Court Judges and over N20 million as allowances for Magistrates and Sharia Court judges.
Also, N20 million is paid as furniture allowance and N46 million monthly as the overhead cost to the judiciary.
“On independence legislature for Local governments, we have conducted free and fair councils election.
“We always give them what they are supposed to get from the Federal Government.
“Sometimes we do a joint project, so they are independent too,” NAN quotes Ganduje as saying.
The Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria(JUSUN) had on April 6 embarked on strike to press their demand for implementation of financial autonomy for the judicial arm of government.
The union, however, called off the strike on June 9.
In another development,
The Kano State Government has approved N2.5 billion for the purchase of Mass Transit Buses to ease the movement of people in the state.
Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje disclosed this on Monday in Kano during an interactive session with newsmen to mark Democracy Day.
According to him, “the purchase will be done through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP). We have identified some routes which will be designated for the buses.”
Ganduje said that the government is trying to introduce the mass transit system in addition to a light rail project, for which it has signed an agreement with a private company for the construction.
“We have appealed to the Federal Government and a Chinese bank and they have approved a loan for the light rail project,” he said.
The governor also said that the foundation stone for the light rail project would be laid before the end of 2021.
“It will take a long process and the incoming governor will continue from where we stopped, he said.
