The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, yesterday, expressed his desire to strengthen the state judiciary with a view to ensuring sanity and enforcement of rule of law to provide conducive environment for investors.
Obaseki, who spoke when he received members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, at Government House, noted that nobody would invest his money in a state where there was disorderliness and impunity.
According to him: “It is the desire of this administration to provide a conducive atmosphere for investors. The rule of law is so important that if I cannot enforce contracts, if I do not feel safe in an environment, and, if my properties would not be protected, I would not invest in that environment.
“If you have listened to our pronouncements as a government, a cardinal focus of this administration is that we want to increase the amount of economic activities in the state so that we can create jobs and empower the young people. So, it is in our interest, as a government, to ensure we strengthen the judiciary and we would be the biggest beneficiaries if we have the proper rule of law in place.”
Adding that his administration was ready to work with other arms of government in brining development and creating jobs for the people of the state, Obaseki recalled: “In our budget proposal to the House of Assembly this year, you will observe that we increased the amount of capital expenditure to the judiciary by almost 600 per cent. I want to assure you that ours is a government that understands that if we do not strengthen judiciary, it will be at our own peril.”
In his address earlier, the National President of JUSUN, Marwan Mustapha Adamu, said their visit was to ensure better working relationship between judiciary workers and the executive.
