Although it is the beneficiary of the ongoing judicial banditry from the temple of justice, the All Progressives Congress (APC) should not be blamed for the judicial banditry. APC was a mere petitioner in the legitimacy tussle that expected justice at all cost. It might therefore, not have bargained for any compromised judgment in its favor worth any blame.
Of all those who attempted to exonerate the judiciary from blame of the judgments delivered in several election cases, it was only Rt.Hon Ahmed Idris Wase (Deputy Speaker Ecowas Parliament) excluding legal practitioners, that wrote an educative piece on the circumstances that led to the defeat of Plateau State Governor, Barr Caleb Manassah Mutfwang at the Court of Appeal.
Wase advanced several convincing reasons with references to Plateau State High Court order to the embattled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for a repeat of its Congress in 2020 which was either ignored or totally discarded. He wrote sense and advanced matured arguments for public awareness. Others spoke childishly as amateur politicians on a wild goose chase seeking national relevance for future adventures and benefits.
Ahmed Idris Wase, as the most senior stakeholder in Plateau State APC project, chose his words to advance his public awareness of the ongoing media trial of the judiciary and not because APC is the end beneficiary. As an APC most senior stakeholder, he appealed for calm and called for decorum. He displayed his leadership capacity in his write up while others, within the APC camp were there preaching hate, advancing primitiveness and trumpeting ego spiced with sycophancy.
And whatever anyone may say on the events that once rocked the Nigerian judiciary and the indictment of former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen as touching the “invasion” or as an “abduction” of senior judges from their abodes by functionaries of the Department of State Security (DSS) and the interdiction and subsequent disconnect from the system of his lordship Walter Onnoghen former Chief Justice of Nigeria for corrupt practices and money laundering remains an imagination of the author.
No matter what, Justice Walter was a complete disgrace to the Nigerian judiciary, his actions exposed hidden facts of corrupt practices and brought shame of the doorstep of the judiciary. He brought the integrity of the judiciary to ridicule and disrepute.
Justice Ibrahim Tanko who took over, was not better. He was forced to resign at the most trying time through a petition from his colleagues to save face from the heap of scandals that enveloped him.
For this purpose, as DSS strategizes to sanitize the judiciary, there is need to extend such strategy to State High Court Judges, Magistrates and Customary/Shari’a Courts where corruption has reached its highest peak and almost institutionalized in the judicial system.
Not only that, DSS should spread its dragnet to the various Elections Petitions Tribunals particularly to those of Kano, Plateau and Zamfara States, that of recent delivered unbelievable judgments against natural justice. Look at the mess of a claimed ‘mix up’ released as Certified True Copy of Judgment for Kano State Gubernatorial tussle from the Court of Appeal. Was it nemesis that played its role for such unknown mix up to have occurred? The truth would prevail!
It is apparent that a new but fearsome vista is opened by the judiciary in the Tinubu administration’s war on corruption and financial crimes. For while it is not necessarily the case that judges are immune from arrest and prosecution anywhere more than their abodes, are deemed inviolate by any written code. It was at least given that nothing be done to remove from the aura and prestige that their office confers. Until penultimate Saturday, judges received the greatest shock they ever imagined courtesy of their penchant for ostentatious living and accumulation of illegal wealth at the detriment of objective justice delivery.
With the ongoing development, President Tinubu should request the DSS to bring in more judges for questioning for suspected violation of their judicial oaths that last bastion of orderly society seems not only set to be stripped of its remaining aura and prestige for good, the notion of its famed independence under the rule of law would appear set for a complete redefinition.
That, seven (7) justices – two of who sat on the apex court (Supreme Court) – were hauled before the DSS on alleged case of corruption with many more said to be on the watch list must represent the lowest point ever for the nation’s judiciary. As if the reports of learned justices stashing troves of cash in multiple currencies in their bedrooms and wardrobes which have inundated the cyberspace days after raid were sufficient proof of guilt, expect no ending to the savaging of the bench as the changers renew the offensive in Tinubu’s lone war! Where all of these would lead for a nation described as fantastically corrupt is anybody’s guess. DSS should painstakingly extend discreet investigation on those who ever served and serving on Election Petitions Tribunals. There will be more revelations I believe!
To be sure, this would not be the first time judges would be accused of corruption. The charge of corruption has been in the air as long as anyone would care to remember. The late Justice of the Supreme Court, Kayode Eso, it was he, who gave Nigerians the phrase “billionaire judges” to describe the cult of perverts in the temple of justice in the aftermath of the 2007 elections.
Prof. Itse Sagay, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), would rue several years on that. “The number of rogue judges who have completely gone out of the line with the rules and ethics of the profession has dramatically increased.” As if today’s soulless, contradictory and oftentimes perverse judgments are enough proof of the general decadence in the judicial institution, we now have daily occurrences of judges openly hawking ‘justice’ for the highest bidder as market women and boys do with their wares on busy highways.
However, what happened to the judges went a tad beyond what is conceivable in constitutional environment. It is, as my colleague described as the Tinubu administration’s serial unforced errors – something that can only be explained by the antics of an administration consumed by messianic complex. The problem said, is the administration’s dangerous assumption that its indignation over perceived infractions should not only override the provisions of the laws and statutes but the very niceties of process that makes the law a beauty to behold. This is where the ardent supporters of the administration particularly of its anti-corruption war will find frustrating seeing the administration descending from arbitrariness to crude self-help even when the law so clearly set out the rules.
Understandably, not everyone agrees that the methods are reprehensible. Trust our ever vibrant brigade of netizens to be hyperactive at a time like this. Our next door neighbor, Ghana, rounded up a group of 34 judges out of which 20 were axed barely few years ago. Again, we were told of the celebrated case in Philadelphia, United States in January 2013 during which nine traffic court judges were arrested in one fell swoop to face charges of crimes bordering on conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, perjury, making false statements to the FBI etc.
While most people do not disagree that the methods were drastic in the two circumstances, the problem as we see all too often is the penchant by our investigating agencies to undermine supposedly good causes with methods that are as sloppy as they are aberrant. Today, if Nigerians appear to be less bothered about the discovery of US$319,475 in the wardrobe of a senior judge than they are of the act of bringing in a judge suspected of breaking the law for questioning, part of the explanation must be found in the security agencies ‘tradition of pronouncing conviction before the rigors of trial!
To the extent that judges neither enjoy immunity from arrest nor from prosecution, nothing that the DSS did could strictly speaking, be said to be out of order or against any privacy. As for the other details surrounding the events – such as whether the DSS has a good case to invite the judges for questioning or the question of whether the agency possessed a valid search warrant for the ‘invasion’, or whether it could not have gone ahead in a more civil, less obtrusive manner – those are matters of mere opinions and conjectures. The point being made here is that process has become everything in a world where transparency rules. It is the reason Nigerians openly voiced out their concerns about the methods being adopted in the prosecution of the anti-corruption war particularly the growing disdain for the rules. I guess part of the aversion for the rules would explain why DSS as against the EFCC not that of the Nuhu Ribadu days is leading the onslaught.
For instance, the EFCC took several months to haul a convicted thief, John Yakubu Yusuf to prison on an excuse that could not convince even the dead. John stole over N24billion from the Police Pension Fund and was found guilty by a competent court.
After conviction, ‘miraculously’, the criminal was allowed to roam the streets of his native Gombe State and other places as a free man until the media cried out that prompted Magu, then EFCC chairman to get the swindler hauled to where he rightly belongs, jail.
The case of Abdulrashid Maina is still fresh in our memories and his name sake, Abdulrashid Bawa who presided over the EFCC but ended in DSS dungeon as a certified thief who was chasing thieves while also stealing what were stolen.
Having said that, we must of course, come to the fundamental point of admitting that we have a terrible malignancy in our hands. It is as simple as saying that the Nigerian Bench and the Bar are both diseased. Between a Bar whose leading lights in trading technicalities would rather upend justice for the lucre and a Bench where mammon rules. It’s hard to imagine anything more toxic to the society. The tragedy is that the legal practitioners’ body – the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA not only prefers to live in denial, it pretends that things should continue like this.
“We condemn the raids in the strongest possible terms,” said a former NBA president, Abubakar Mahmoud in his reaction to the judges’ arrest. “We are in a democratic society and we cannot accept a situation where armed, masked DSS operatives invade homes of the Justices of the Supreme Court and Judges of our High Courts……This is a ploy by the executive to intimidate the judiciary and we will not accept it. The NBA will not accept it. I want to emphasize again that we’re not under military rule and we cannot accept this Gestapo style of operations.” Well said – Nigerians guess
If Nigerians disregard the fatuous nonsense which deigns to suggest we chase the fox before returning to give the errant chicks a good hiding, the indignation from an NBA that has become, quite frankly an enabler of judicial perversion can only be described as hallow – pure hot gas.
Let the heavens fall – if it must. But then, let the dwellers of the cathedral know that there can be no such thing as a hiding place for any criminal. The swoop had just began and with dexterity and courage, more corrupt judges and their agents within and outside the system would be rounded up and thrown to their rightful places of abode, the four-corner of prison but not until after retrieving all the filthy wealth accumulated.
Not only that, the DSS should strive to visit the National Judicial Council, NJC and study its modus operandi while senior officers of the Supreme Court should be under severe probe including their alleged unholy roles in several exposed corruption cases and those yet to be exposed. The NJC should be thoroughly investigated as corruption is allegedly thriving in that organ of government.
There are many hidden cases of scandals within the judiciary with emphasis on the Election Petitions Tribunals and Kano, Plateau and Zamfara States are typical cases that need special attention. We cannot be denied objective justice from state agents and also be denied the application of a coordinated jungle justice!
Muhammad is a commentator on National Affairs
