CJN Muhammad pledges to tackle corruption in judiciary

By Andrew Orolua, Abuja

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, has pledged to partner with journalists and other stakeholders to tackle corruption in Nigeria’s judicial system.

Muhammad made the pledge on Wednesday shortly after he was sworn-in as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria at the State House, Abuja.

He described as unfortunate the situation where judges allowed some people to serve as links between them and people standing trial in court, saying such a scenario must stop.

He, however, challenged journalists to alert him or expose suspected cases of corrupt practices in the judiciary, emphasising that the judiciary under his watch would be more transparent and corruption – free and warned that allegations of corruption against any judicial official must be substantiated to guide against tarnishing the good image of the affected individual and the system.

“I will want to see the Nigerian judiciary become the best judiciary in the world although we are still learning, I am proud to say Nigeria’s judiciary, I am sure is one of the best in Africa.

“If you take a look at our judicial officers, all of us are fully trained, yet all of us at intervals still go on courses so that we remind ourselves of the ethics binding on us.

“I ’m telling you that the judiciary under my watch by God’s grace will be better and the issues of all these kinds of corruption I will ask you people or any other person who knows about it to please let him write to me or let him contact me and tell me.

“But, remember, the thing that is difficult is when we ask you to substantiate, you will be able to substantiate. Don’t just make a hollow allegation that we have heard, we have done. Be sure that you are quite in possession of your facts (so that) you will be able to establish when we ask you to establish your allegation and we will deal with it,’’ he said.

The chief justice stated that the judiciary would continue to support the executive arm of government in the ongoing fight against corruption by speeding up cases that have to do with the allegations of corruption.