Gov. Simon Lalong says he will renovate 35 magistrates courts and the old high court complexes in Plateau in 2022.
Presenting the state’s 2022 Appropriation Bill of N106 billion to the House of Assembly on Thursday in Jos, Gov. Lalong said government was also working toward completing the building of Phase 1 of the Jos High Court complex.
He said these were necessary to provide an environment conducive to effective discharge of the functions of the judiciary.
In the budget, christened: “A budget for Economic Recovery and Consolidation of Inclusive Infrastructural Growth’’, government allocated of N1.4 billion to the judiciary for its capital projects.
He said in addition to government’s commitment of completing on-going projects across the state’s three senatorial zones, it intended to embark on new projects.
“We intend to break ground on new ones. Among them is the construction of the British-American Junction Flyover and dualization to Lamingo Junction Roundabout.
“Similarly we shall carry out the design of master plan for some selected urban areas in Plateau namely: Heipang, Mangu and Shendam.
“We shall also establish a Microfinance Development Fund to propel entrepreneurship and accelerate the growth of the Micro and Small Scale Industry in the state for job creation, youth empowerment and poverty reduction,’’ he said
Before the budget presentation, the governor visited the new high court complex to inspect the level of progress of on-going work at the site.
At a news conference after the inspection, Gov. Lalong said government made a lot of commitments to complete the project in 2020, but was delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak and recent attacks in the state.
He expressed satisfaction at the quality of work and materials used in the project, saying with available funds, the work would be completed and inaugurated for use before the end of 2021. (NAN)
