Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee
Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), has
justified the recent arrest of judges on allegations of
corruption, categorising acts of corruption by judicial
officers as a serious crime against humanity.
Also on his part, Executive Secretary of PACAC, Prof.
Bolaji Owasanoye, called for the suspension of the
judges arrested by the Department of State Services on
allegations of corruption pending when they would
clear their names.
The spoke at PACAC’s interaction with reporters on
first anniversary of the committee’s activities.
Responding to various criticisms from some quarters
against the raids on the houses and the arrest of
seven judges, Sagay said those critics failed to
understand the implications of corruption.
He said an ordinary man could be guilty of
corruption, but a judge should never be otherwise the
system will collapse.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria stated, “Ordinary man
like you and me can be guilty of corruption; a judge
should never be guilty of corruption.
“Once a judge does that, he brings himself to our level
and so, cannot complain if he is treated like you and
me are treated. That is what has happened. Let us be
objective and be fair to this country in our
commentary and not be narrow minded.”
Sagay said because of its tendency to inflame,
resorting to self-help and ultimately breakdown of law
and order, judiciary corruption could be described as
crime against humanity.
“Those who have criticised the DSS have not looked at
the implications of judicial corruption. This is because
at the end of the day, when there is corruption, who do
they take the matter to, to the judge? The judge is the
ultimate and if the buck stops at his table and that
judge is complicit in corruption, then, that is the end of
the fight against corruption . That is how awful it is.
“So, any judge who is corrupt is committing what I can
even call a crime against humanity because it just
destroys our confidence and the system, which will
sustain the state in law and order.
“It encourages people to resort to self-help because
there is no hope in taking the crime to court.
“Today, we have some governors who are sitting there
who we know did not win election. And because they
killed on their way to office, people are still dying to
sustain them in office.
“Yet, some courts at the highest level gave approval to
the process that brought those people to what I call
their bloody seats on which they are sitting.
“If the judiciary is corrupt, if the only body, in fact, the
only arm of government that has the power of life and
death over Nigerians, is corrupt, then it is sad.”
He said people should be sad that “Billions” that were
supposed to be meant for the construction of roads,
building and equipping schools and hospitals were
found in private residences.
“Isn’t it enough that billions of naira are found in
private residences? Don’t we associate these billions
of naira with the fact that our roads are in state of
disrepair; that our hospitals are under or ill-equipped;
that schools are dilapidated; and that it affects your
daily life? What of those whose salaries are not paid
in the public service? All this money came from the
public purse.
He blamed the arrest of the judges on what he
described as loss of moral authorities on the part of
current Supreme Court Justices.
He said in the era of Justices of the “golden Supreme
Court” such as the late Justice Kayode Eso, no
government agency would dare to arrest them even
when they delivered a lot of judgments against the
then military administrations, including that of the
Head of State, Gen. Buhari (now President).
“We need the judiciary; but we need an upright
judiciary. Without that, all arms of government will
collapse, democracy will collapse."
No comments:
Post a Comment