DISQUIET IN SUPREME COURT OVER MEDICAL TRIPS, ALLOWANCES FOR JUSTICES

THERE are murmurs in the circle of justices of the Supreme Court over the annual medical trips and payable allowances for such trips, the Nigerian Tribune can reliably disclose.

The burgeoning crisis, which centres around the number of times a justice of the apex court could travel abroad for medical check-ups and whether the annual appropriation for such could be taken twice, has reportedly pitted two particular justices from the Northern part of the country against the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mariam Mukthar.

The crisis reportedly started when Mukthar cancelled an arrangement she met on the ground, which allowed some justices of the court to travel abroad more than once for medical trips and collect standard allowances for the trips within a year.

A top source within the judiciary disclosed that the two justices, who are now spearheading an alleged hate campaign against the CJN, had been the biggest beneficiaries of the multiple annual medical trips allegedly introduced when Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu was at the helm of affairs.

It was also learnt that it was during the period that the allowance was upped from £2,500 to £10,000, an arrangement the incumbent was said to have sustained but insisted could only be paid once.

Currently, each of the 16 justices of the court takes £10,000, $24,000 and N1.75 million (which is for first class ticket), in July every year, when they traditionally go on vacation and medicals.

Meanwhile, the CJN has issued a circular banning judges and justices of all courts from traveling without clearing with the heads of the courts and her office.

For judges of the lower courts, they were to take permission from their heads of courts, while chief judges, justices of the Court of Appeal and the apex court must clear with her office.

A system source told the Nigerian Tribune that she took the step when she kept running into judges and even justices of higher courts abroad without having a prior knowledge of their journeys.

When contacted about the medical trip allowance crisis, a top official of the court, who did not want his name in prints, simply said “it is an internal matter.”

Source: Tribune