El-Rufai presents 24 jeeps to high court judges

TRACKING>>Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state on Monday presented 24 jeeps to high court judges as part of efforts to enhance the welfare of judicial officers in the state.

The governor said while presenting the vehicles to the judges in Kaduna that more vehicles would be provided to other judges.

Gov. el-Rufai also disclosed plans by his administration to construct housing estates for the judges.

“The next beneficiaries will be khadis of sharia court of appeal and judges of the customary court of appeal. They will be delivered soon by God’s grace, not only the incoming judges, but also the existing ones.

“The state government has plans to develop housing estate for senior judges, as currently, judges are accommodated in government buildings scattered across the state.

“We believe that if we develop housing estate where all the senior judges will be in comfortable accommodation, with club house and shopping facility, they will have a self-contained community and better security.

“We are working on that and very soon the developer will approach heads of courts to look at the design that are suitable,’’ he said.

The governor added that the state government was working on retirement and post -retirement housing scheme for judicial staff, as it is one of the issues that bother most civil servants as they approach retirement.

“We are working on a scheme to brief heads of courts while they develop houses for sale to senior judges and provide mortgage facilities for them at single digits interest for them to acquire these houses and pay over a period of 15-20 years.

“Every citizens of Kaduna state is entitled to a house; we cannot provide for everyone, but we will provide a framework that will give everyone the opportunity to borrow and buy a house over 15 to 20 years

“We already have this in place, we have agreement with three banks and we already have N4 billion to lend to people,’’ the governor added.

According, to him, the government also has plans to provide one central area for all courts in Kaduna state instead of the scattered manner they are located.