Nigerians from all sectors and regions have continue to
react to weekend arrest of some prominent judges at the wee hours of the night
in their various homes by men of the State Security Service (SSS).
Though majority of the reactions out rightly condemned the
manner in which the arrests were made, but on the other hand, Femi Falana, who
had always been on the right side of President Buhari expressed a contrary
opinion and apportioned blame on the judiciary for failing to deal with the
issue of corruption in their midst.
Mr. Falana also used the opportunity to call for the
immediate release of the judges, and said if they must be prosecuted for any
offence, let it be done through the Attorney General of the Federation.
“As the detained
judges are presumed innocent until the contrary is proved by the state, they
should be admitted to bail in self recognizance. At the same time, the office
of the Attorney-General of the Federation should ensure that the suspects are
arraigned in court without any further delay.
“However, it is a matter of grave concern that the legal
profession has allowed the denigration of the hallowed temple of justice
because of the misconduct of a few corrupt judges. For several years, judges
who committed grave criminal offences were not prosecuted but merely retired by
the authorities on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council.
“Although the National Judicial Council recently recommended
the dismissal and prosecution of a judge for extorting the sum of N197 million
from a litigant, the authorities had paid lip service to the menace of judicial
corruption in the country.
“About two years ago, an anti-graft agency found N2 billion
in the account of a high court judge. As soon as the judge was invited for
questioning, she reported and made a statement and was granted bail. But as she
could not defend the lodgement in her bank account, she obtained an
interlocutory injunction from one of the judges in the custody of the SSS.
“It is common knowledge that two Senior Advocates of Nigeria
are standing trial in the Lagos high court for allegedly bribing a judge. Even
though it takes two to tango, the judge has not been charged to court for
allegedly receiving bribe,” said Mr. Falana.
Contrary to the likes of Falana, another Senior Advocate and
human rights activists, Mike Ozekhome expressed worries that the purported
attack on the judges by the executive arm of government is very dangerous to
the principles of democracy.
He further stated the Buhari’s government had long began
this act of intimidation and indiscriminate arrest prior to this very attack on
the judges, simply because Nigerians had always kept quiet, thus giving him the
impetus to keep abuse his office to intimidate perceived enemies who do not
play to his whims and caprices, which poses great danger to democratic
foundations.
“It started with
political opponents and opposition. Some of us cried out. Many gloated with
éclat and a sense of victory at opponents’ horrific travails. Then, they moved
against some very senior and well respected lawyers being rubbished. Some
clapped. They said it was anti-corruption. We cried out. It extended quickly to
the National Assembly, another different arm of government. Many hailed the
Government as tough, no-nonsense and anti-corruption- inclined. Some of us
warned.
“Now, the Judiciary, up to the very apex court of the land,
the Supreme Court, has been targeted and is now being intimidated, humiliated
and annexed,” he said.
He further made a strong warning that if this abuse of power
by the executive arm is not checked, the media would be the next prey.
Similarly, a U.S. based legal practitioner, Emmanuel Ogebe,
said that the activities of the SSS can be simply be termed as the President
Buhari’s dictatorial style of governance. As he described the unlawful attack on
the judiciary as the worst in the history of Nigerian.
“Here is why the president goofed. In furtherance of the
doctrine of separation of powers, the National Judicial Council is the body
primarily charged with the discipline and appointment of judges involving
violations of the Code of Conduct of judges in S.292(1) of the Constitution.
This peer review ombudsman agency serves as a bulwark to arbitrary and
vindictive attacks on judges from the executive or legislative by conducting
internal self-cleansing.
“Indeed just the day before the raid on the judges, NJC had
listed almost 70 judges upon whom disciplinary action had been taken in a 5
year period. At 5% of the approximate 1042 judges, this is more than the number
of governors, ministers or legislators ever sanctioned for misconduct in the
past 16 years of democracy combined,” said Mr. Ogebe.
He outlined some examples of alleged dictatorship by past regime,
adding that Mr. Buhari’s “style of dictatorship has always been worse” than
that of other dictators in Nigeria.
“Firstly, not even in the dark days of the brutal dictator General
Abacha, the butcher of Abuja, did anything of this sort happen. Abacha’s
highest action against the judiciary when they granted his political rival for
the presidency, MKO Abiola bail, was to appeal the decision and refuse to
appoint new judges to hear the case.
“Similarly even President Obasanjo, also a former military
dictator, only used a similar mechanism under the constitution by declining to
forward names of certain judges recommended by the NJC to the Senate for
confirmation. Obasanjo ultimately appointed judges to the bench.
“However Buhari’s current government’s action is worse
compared to his prior record as a military dictator in the 80s. Buhari then
retired many judges whom he felt did not give judgments against the ruling
party. Furthermore he created special tribunals and rewarded judges who agreed
to serve on these tribunals with promotions over and above those who didn’t,”
Mr. Ogebe said.
Similarly, report has it that the National Youth Council of
Nigeria have condemned the attack and vowed to organise a nation-wide protest
to register its concern.
In an announcement made by the Council’s President, Ikenga
Ugochinyere, the council labelled the attack as disgraceful and totally
undemocratic.
“We totally condemn the arrests of these jurists as their
arrests could have been done in civilized ways. Who says it is only under the
cover of darkness that they can be arrested? Was the onslaught by that time of
the night for an opportunity to do anything the Service will not want Nigerians
to know about? Was it necessary to pull down the doors of the houses of
non-violent judges to execute an arrest warrant?
“While we note that no one is above the law and that
security agencies can arrest anyone who commits a crime, we wonder how such
highly placed citizens who were not known to be violent could be arrested with
a combined team of SSS and Police and in such a Gestapo style.”
The council called for the release of the judges with
immediate effect and called for an end to all forms of attack and intimidations
on judges in Nigerians.
The Council pleaded with the Nigerian Bar Association to
order boycott of all courts of law for the next 48 hours as a demonstration of
its dissatisfaction of the action of the SSS.
The council further said it will organise protests across
the nation, where the NBA fails to exercise a show of dissatisfaction.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP,
also expressed shock and tasked President Buhari to order the immediate release
of judges arrested by the office the State Security Service or face world-wide
legal action against him.
The letter was dated, 9 October where SERAP asked the president
to order the release of the judges and an end to what it called the undue
intimidation of the Judiciary and Nigerians in general by the SSS.
“If following the receipt and/or publication of this letter,
your government fails or refuses to immediately and unconditionally release the
judges as requested, SERAP would promptly consider appropriate legal options
nationally and internationally to ensure the full and effective implementation
of our requests,” it said.
