The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ado-Ekiti branch, has lamented that the state judiciary was yet to be financially autonomous one year after the judicial members of staff embarked on strike to demand financial independence for the arm of government.

Besides, the NBA insisted that it was wrong for the executive to be the appointing authority for the judges and magistrates, saying that the practice continues to undermine the independence of judiciary because “he, who pays the pipers, dictates the tune.”

The NBA branch chairman, Mr. Adeyemi Adewumi, spoke in Ado-Ekiti, yesterday, during the commencement of the Law Week 2022 with the theme: “Judicial Independence, a Recipe for True Democracy in Nigeria.”

He said the essence of the theme for the Law Week was to chart the way forward on ways and means to ensure true judicial independence.

Adewumi, who painted a grim picture of the conditions of judges, lamented that the magistrates in the state use personal cars because they were not provided official vehicles.

He said: “If you see the official cars of some judges, you will pity them.

“We have seen a situation here in Ekiti State where National Judicial Commission (NJC) recommended judges for appointment and the Executive stopped it and it took another government and NBA’s intervention to get it done.

“For the judiciary to be truly independent, judges must be free to discharge their responsibilities not minding whose ox is gored.”