Rumbles in the ‘temple of justice’ over judges’ arrest

There seems to be no love lost between the National Judicial Council(NJC) and the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) over the ongoing debacle of seven judges of the Supreme court who were arrested in a ‘ sting operation’ by officials of Department of Security Service(DSS) on allegation of corruption.

 

In the last two weeks , the action of the DSS on the Nigerian legal firmaments and implications of same to the principle of separation of powers in the country had dominated national discourse by stakeholders in the judicial sector.

 

Most backers of the action of the DSS hinged their proposition on the fact that judicial officers under the constitution are not immune from arrest and trial by the state and that the NJC which is saddled with the responsibility of wielding the big sticks on erring members have only done so through cosmetic approaches.

 

Those who opposed the action of the state service, said they went beyond their constitutional boundary to invade the ‘temple of justice’ without the knowledge of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and other agents of the executive that have the power to arrest on the orders of the NJC.

 

In the wake of the crisis, the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) was quick to unreservedly condemn the action of the DSS and demanded that the affected judges should be released unconditionally because the action of the agents was ultra vire. They threatened state of emergency on the Nigerian courts in order to vent their anger against the attacks on the judiciary

Not all members of the bar backed such decision to declare state of emergency on the courts, especially against the plethora of alleged revelation in the media of how some of the affected judges took bribe and stuffed their residences with foreign and local currencies when the officials of the DSS ‘visited’ them.

Some of the affected judges have not only defended themselves, but also blamed their woes on their failures to accede to the request of some serving ministers in the current administration to give a satisfactory verdict in matters before them.

 

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) , who also doubles as the chairman of the NJC, Mahmud Mohammed, condemned the invasion of the residences of the judge and insisted that due process must be followed in the trial.

He posited that the embattled judges are still presumed innocent, until they are pronounced otherwise by court of competent jurisdiction in the country.

 

Last week, both the NJC and the NBA parted ways on the fate of the embattled judges as the latter recommended that senior judges under criminal investigation should withdraw from further judicial functions or in the alternative be sent on compulsory leave.

NBA President, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) said: “We therefore strongly recommend that, without prejudice to the innocence or otherwise of the judges involved in the ongoing investigations, they should be required to excuse themselves from further judicial functions or required to proceed on compulsory leave until their innocence is fully and completely established or until the conclusion of all judicial or disciplinary proceedings.”

But, the National Judicial Council has said that it will not ask the judges accused of corrupt practices to step down as it has no powers to do so.

In its response signed by its acting director of information, Soji Oye, the NJC said Mr. Mahmoud’s advice “is unacceptable to the NJC; as it breaches the 2014 Revised Judicial Discipline Regulations formulated by NJC pursuant to Section 160 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.”

The NJC also said Mr. Mahmoud was present when it took an earlier position condemning the raid of the judges’ homes by the State Security Service (SSS) a fortnight ago.

 

 “The members of the public are hereby informed that the mechanism that will determine a judicial officer to be directed or requested to proceed on compulsory leave or be suspended from office, is a disciplinary power that NJC can only exercise after initiating disciplinary proceeding on the complaint or petition forwarded against the Judge, after he has been found culpable,” it said.‎

 

A Lagos based  lawyer, Mr. Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa, faulted the new NBA’s stance, saying the body is indirectly advocating a system of presumption of innocence which is contrary to the nation’s constitution.

 

According to him, the sudden turn-around by the NBA does not represent the aggregate opinion of all reasonable lawyers who are lovers of equity, justice, rule of law and the independence of the nation’s judiciary.

 

He said: “Now, section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution states that every person charged with a criminal offense is presumed innocent until the contrary is proved. This presumption of innocence, offered to all citizens of Nigeria, is even in relation to when the citizen has been charged to court, and not speculations and half truths, based on ‘sting’ operations.

 “As things are now, judges across the land dare not give decisions unfavorable to the ruling party, or the powers that be, contrary to the established norm that everyone is equal before the law. The NBA cannot be seen to condone or indeed encourage the intimidation of judges, or the harassment and ridiculing of the judiciary by politicians who have lost cases in the open court, after failing to have their way through attempted corrupt enrichment of the judges.”

According to Mr. Adeyemo Otunuga, critics should “remove the log of sentiments from your eyes and ask yourselves this important question, ‘How come our justices have become so accessible to politicians?’” 

The Assistant Secretary of NBA Epe branch, Oladotun Hassan condemned the call by the national NBA that the National Judicial Council (NJC) should suspend judges under investigation for corruption.

According to him, the NBA is the first to come out and condemn the DSS arrest of the judges and wondered why it  turned back to call for the suspension of the judges.

 “What has the NBA on its own done to investigate and sanction it members who were mentioned in the investigations of the affected judges?,”  he asked.

He however implored the NJC to look at the issues raised against the judges as this will protect the sanctity of the judiciary, adding that the body should also consider review of NJC laws on the disciplining of erring judicial officers.

He also called on the NJC to deploy its officers to courts across the country to monitor the situation and give feedback so that the onus will not only be on a petitioner to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt.

Bukar Alhaji Waziri, the former branch chairman of NBA in Biu, Borno backed the call by the national body of NBA that the judge’s under investigation should step aside.

As the federal government prepares to formally filed a criminal charge against the suspected judges this week, no one could predict whether the rumble in the nation’s ‘temple of justice’ will fizzle into harmony among these stakeholders in the justice sector.