Date: 2015-01-12

On May 31, 2012, Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, as part of the activities marking the Democracy Day celebration commissioned the judges’ quarters located in Ilorin, the state capital.

The project initiated by his predecessor, Bukola Saraki was one of the multi-million naira projects the governor inherited and completed upon assumption of office.

It was a project designed to not only provide conducive and befitting accommodation for judges but to ease dispensation of justice. 

Therefore, the state rolled out the drums the day the facility was being commissioned.

It is a 16-unit of duplex apartments with stewards’ lodges located along New GRA Tanke Ilorin. 

To give the quarters a good look, government equally put asphalt on the road from Tanke Tipper Garage linking the quarters/New GRA.

The governor while commissioning 16 judges’ quarters and stewards’ lodges said it was part of efforts at ensuring that judges in the state live in conducive environment that could hasten dispensation of justice.

However, after the razzmatazz and the glamour of the commissioning, our correspondent observed that the place has been left unoccupied for three years.

Rather than the quarters occupied by judges, they have grown grasses and the place is turning into a forest. When Daily Trust visited the quarters only a security man (mai guard) was on the premises.

Not a single judge in the state has moved into the quarters since commissioning. The entrance of the quarters is covered with grasses so also the back side. One can hardly see the perimeter fencing as it is equally bushy.

A resident in the area frowned at the situation, saying, “I find it incredible that the quarters are left unoccupied at a time a lot of people don’t have a befitting accommodation.”

However, Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Bode Olayemi who spoke with our correspondent at the weekend said the quarters will soon be allocated.

He said, “The issue with the judges’ quarters is that within the time it was built and commissioned, there was this shift in policy by government between allocating quarters to public officers or monetizing them and all that. So that is what we have been trying to sort out and I’m sure that by next week [this week], we’re going to have meeting with the judiciary on it to conclude on the allocation of the quarters.

“We expect that before this month runs out, the allocation will be done and all the necessary arrangements will be made. I had a discussion about it with the governor last week.

“We’ve guards there, we’re going to clear it by next week and you will see the changes.”