The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Saturday warned the Department of State Service to release the judges in its custody or face dire consequences.
The NBA also declared a state of emergency in the judiciary following the midnight arrest of some judges by the Department of State Services (DSS). The declaration of the state of emergency was made in Lagos by the NBA President, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN).
The declaration comes hours after two supreme Court justices Inyang Okoro and Sylvester Ngwuta were “abducted”, with their families by the DSS.
The NBA president condemned the arrest, describing it as Gestapo-style operation by the DSS. Mahmoud addressed the press alongside four past presidents of the association – Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN); Mr. J.B. Daudu (SAN) and Augustine Alegeh (SAN). Others in attendance at the declaration, which held at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, were Prof. Kayinsola Ajayi (SAN), Mr. Yusuf Ali (SAN), Mr. Dele Adesina (SAN), among others.
The NBA president said he’s yet to have the full detail of other judges who could have been involved. He announced the constitution of an emergency or crisis management team, comprising past NBA presidents to engage with the government. Mahmoud, who said it was not the responsibility of the DSS to arrest judges, described the DSS action as an unconstitutional means of intimidating the judiciary and undermining its independence.
Mahmoud said, “I want to emphasise again that we are not under military rule and we cannot accept this unholy event and Gestapo-style operation. “We, therefore, call on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately caution all the state security agencies and to respect the rule of law and to respect due process. “Any issues affecting the judicial officers, there are established procedures for handling them and we demand that this constitutional process must be obeyed.
“Given the unfolding nature of the event and the seriousness of the situation, the NBA hereby declares a state of emergency as it affects the affairs of the judiciary and I hereby constitute a crisis management team, comprising all past presidents of the association.
“I want to, on behalf of the association, make the very following clear and unequivocal demands: we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all the judges abducted from about 9pm yesterday (Friday). “The release must be done immediately and without any conditions. Two, we demand that the Department of State Services should limit itself to its statutory and constitutional responsibilities.
“I’ll be meeting with the CJN later tonight or tomorrow. There will be consequences should these demands are not met.” We have been monitoring their expensive and luxurious lifestyle – DSS In its own press conference which was also held on Saturday, the DSS confirmed that it raided the homes of some judges in various states for alleged corruption.
The DSS further revealed that it’s operatives carried out overnight raids on the residences of judges in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Gombe, Kano, Enugu and Sokoto. According to an official of the service, Abdullahi Garba who spoke at the press conference in Abuja, so huge amount of money was recovered from the judges’ homes.
The DSS described the arrests as sting operations. It claimed that it had earlier invited the judges and had done due diligence before resorting to the sting operation. The agency said, “These operations were based on allegations of corruptions and other acts of professional misconduct by a few of the suspected Judges. The Service action is in line with its core mandate, as we have been monitoring the expensive and luxurious lifestyle of some of the Judges as well as complaints from the concerned public over judgment obtained fraudulently and on the basis amounts of money paid.
“The judges involved were invited, upon which due diligence was exhibited and their premises searched. The searches have uncovered huge raw cash of various denominations, local and foreign currencies, with real estate worth several millions of Naira and documents affirming unholy acts by these Judges.”
The DSS claimed that some of the arrested judges have made useful statements while a few have declined even with the glaring evidences that were found against them in terms of material cash, documents and property recovered pointing to their compromise. Abdullahi said that in one of the states where the Service operations were conducted, credible intelligence revealed that the Judge had $2,000,000 stashed in his house.
“When he was approached for due search to be conducted, he in concert with the State Governor, mobilized thugs against the Service team,” he said. “The team restrained itself in the face of unbridled provocative activities by those brought in by the Governor. Unfortunately, the Judge and Governor also engaged the tacit support of a sister security agency.”
The DSS claimed that the judge with the active support of the Governor craftily moved the money to an unknown location which the Service is currently making effort to unravel. In total, the agency said it recovered N93,558,000.00, $530,087, £25,970 and €5,680 from the raid. It assured the people that preparations are ongoing to arraign the arrested judges in a competent court of jurisdiction in line with the laws of the nation.
The Service denied inviting Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen for investigation. “In addition the Service would like to put it on record, that it has tremendous respect for the Judiciary and would not do anything to undermine it or its activities,” Abdullahi said.
“The Service will also join hands with this noble institution in its fight to rid it of few corrupt Judges whose actions is undermining not only the Judiciary but the common bond of our national life.” It is a threat to democracy, says Fayose In a swift reaction, Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose described the invasion of residences of the judges, including those of two Justices of the Supreme Court – Justice Walter Onnoghen (who is in line to succeed the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria) and Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, by armed men of the Department of State Service (DSS) and reported arrest as a direct assault on the judiciary.
Governor Fayose, who addressed the press in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday, said; “It should now be obvious to all Nigerians and the international community that democracy is under threat in Nigeria and Nigerians must rise to save democracy from being truncated.”
The governor said; “For all intent and purposes, there is no how the federal government can justify the gestapo and crude action of the DSS against our judiciary, the last hope of the common man and I believe they just want to hide under anti-corruption fight to blackmail and intimidate the judiciary. If not, have the affected judges been reported to the National Judicial Council (NJC), the body saddled with the responsibilities of investigating and sanctioning erring judges? Were the affected judges ever invited by the DSS and they refused to honour the invitation?
“I am particularly worried over the involvement of Justice Walter Onnoghen in the invasion, and I hope this is not a plot to prevent his appointment as the next CJN just because he is from the South South region. “Nigerians should be reminded that I raised similar alarm when this regime of impunity started with the invasion of the Akwa-Ibom State government house and later the Ekiti State House of Assembly.
“I did say then that democracy in Nigeria was becoming unsafe in the hands of this APC government and that those keeping silent because of politics might also end up in the belly of the roaring lion that is threatening to consume our democracy. Then, those who ought to have joined in condemning the DSS impunity at that time kept silent for fear of the unknown. Now we have gotten to the height of it and Nigeria faces full-blown military dictatorship! This is sad!
“It is more worrisome that two of the judges involved, Justice Adeniyi Ademola and Justice Nnamdi Dimgba ruled against the DSS and condemned its impunity on the cases of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and retired Air Commodore, Umar Mohammed and one wonders if upholding the rule of law by refusing to help the DSS to sustain its reign of impunity has now become a criminal offence for which judges must be harassed, intimidated and arrested.
“The question to ask is that, will the DSS be a judge in its own case? Even if there are evidence(s) of corruption against the judges as they will want Nigerians to believe, the law is clear as to what to do.
The NJC must be informed and the council will in turn investigate the allegation and take appropriate actions. It is after this that the affected judges can be invited for questioning and possibly prosecuted. “It should be noted that few days ago, the NJC sacked three judges for breaching the Codes of Conduct for Judicial Officers and went further to recommend that one of them, Justice Kabiru M. Auta be handed over to the Inspector General of Police for prosecution for alleged corruption.
“If NJC could do this less than one week ago, has the same NJC been informed of any allegation of corruption against the judges whose residences were invaded? “I therefore call on all Nigerians and the international community to rise in defence of democracy and the rule of law in our country because as it is, no one will be spared by this rampaging dictatorship.
“Particularly, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and other stakeholders in the judiciary must not allow this to go unchallenged. “Obviously, the DSS has become a threat to democracy in Nigeria, having abandoned its core mandate of providing intelligence for the protection of the internal security of Nigeria as provided in the Security Agencies Act Cap. N74 LFN, 2004. “It has therefore become necessary that President Buhari put a stop to the actions and activities of these overzealous security agents.”
Government must condemn the action of DSS – Joseph Otteh The Director of a group, Access to Justice has also called on the government to condemn the agency’s gestapo move. He noted that the raids attack the independence of Judiciary and its form denigrates it. He said it is despotic for officials of one branch of government to treat those of another branch in a manner that completely lacks respect and decorum: these attacks represent an invidious and insidious threat to the independence of the Judiciary.
The SSS says the raids were part of corruption investigations. Access to Justice, and other stakeholders have often expressed concerns about corruption in Judiciary and the slow progress being made to tackle it, but this is no legitimate way to tackle corruption.
Otteh said: “Breaking into Judges houses, assaulting their relatives, and arresting them in the time of night they were, over-reaches the boundaries of how the SSS can legitimately conduct its business in a democratic government. “The tactics used by the SSS in these incidents are scare-mongering, and we are concerned that it may be calculated to intimidate Judges who are opposed to the government’s persistent disobedience of court orders.
“If the government or its agencies have any suspicions against Judges, the government is entitled to pursue these complaints in a procedurally fair and legitimate way. Judges would be expected to honour any invitations from government agencies where an investigation is being done. “This is the way anti-corruption agencies have treated many of those it is currently prosecuting. Why is the government denying judges this procedure?
“There is something yet more portentous about what these incidents represent: if judges can be treated in this way, what rights do ordinary citizens have? Is this government serving notice that it will not anymore observe restraints or protocols that regulate inter-branch relationships, but will ride rough-shod over everything in its way, including the due process rights afforded by the Constitution to any and everyone?
“President Buhari’s government must respect the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and must rein in the excesses of its agencies. The government must denounce the actions of the SSS, investigate this assault on the Judiciary, express its regrets and reassurances to the Judiciary and ensure that those who authorized these assaults on judges and their households are disciplined.
“The government must further address concerns that its agencies may be using the investigation of corruption allegations as a means to cower judges, and cajole them into silence, or as a way to intimidate Judges who question the administration’s fledging respect for the rule of law and court orders. The President must assure Nigerians that the Judiciary will never again, during his administration, be denigrated in this manner.”
Huhuonline
