Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has promised to see to it that infrastructure is provided before land is allocated in the area.
During his meeting with Justice John Tsoho, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, on Thursday, the minister stated that allocating land to individuals in inaccessible places is not financially rational.
Justice Tsoho had asked the government to take the judiciary into account while allocating lands.
In response, Wike declared his unwavering respect for the Legislature and the Judiciary, adding that he thinks the three branches of government should be equal and independent.
He claimed that President Bola Tinubu had already given him the mandate to provide land to important figures in the three arms, and he was creating a blueprint that would allow the distribution to happen gradually.
He said; “Like you rightly said, I believe that the three arms of government must work together even though independently and I believe that no arm of government should be treated lesser than the other.
“Without the judiciary, our democracy cannot survive. Nigerians are talking about the judiciary today because of the role you play and so whatever is required to strengthen the judiciary is not over-demanding.
“Before now, the President had given me the go-ahead to allocate lands to the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. What remains now is how it should be done because the number is too much. What we have decided to do is to do this in phases. All cannot be done at the same time.
“Some allocations were done in the past but unfortunately, some of the places are inaccessible. I think it is baseless to allocate land to which people have no access, that is, infrastructure. It does not make any sense. So, we will allocate lands to you in places that are accessible”.
Justice Tsoho had earlier praised Wike for his continuous support to the judiciary, stating that throughout his tenure as governor, Rivers' judicial officers' welfare has outweighed that of their counterparts in other states.
