CJN warns Judges against gratification

…Says judiciary plays crucial role in ensuring financial stability

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, has warned judges in Nigeria to avoid all forms of misconduct including accepting gratification, saying that as judges, they are expected to live above board.

Onnoghen, who also noted that judges play a crucial role in ensuring the financial stability, advised the judges to work in synergy with regulators of the financial sector to put in place mechanism that would guarantee the safety of deposits and investments in the country.

He stated this at the 2017 sensitisation seminar for Federal Capital Territory FCT and state High Court judges, organised by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) in collaboration with the National Judicial Institute in Abuja.

Speaking on the theme: Challenges to Deposit Insurance law and Practice in Nigeria, the CJN said: “Although judges are subject to the same human frailty as all other members of society, while at the same time maintaining judicial independence, you must expect your conduct to be the subject of constant public scrutiny. Various aspects of misconduct including accepting gratification when such delicate matters touching on deposits and investors funds are before your Lordships must be avoided”.

According to him, where judges indulge in such acts, the repercussion would be that of placing the wealth of the nation out of reach from regulation and inviting financial collapse of the entire economy.

“This workshop is evidence that the regulators in the sector recognise the importance of the role played by the judiciary in ensuring system stability in Nigeria. Judges must therefore learn to look beyond narrow interests of claimants and balance same against public interest in having a stable financial system and protecting the interest of depositors”, he said.

Onnoghen added that judges in their adjudication should recognise that in financial system, stability laws and policy have clear objectives for the prevention of financial crisis and are targeted primarily at protecting a special class of persons, whom he described as depositors.

Administrator of the National Judicial Institute, Hon. Justice Roseline Bozimo, who noted that the theme of the workshop was apt, as it is aimed at fostering previous efforts of the corporation and NJI, said the seminar will help fashion out ways of scaling some of the hurdles faced by the corporation in the discharge of its duties as it pertains to the rule of law.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, while acknowledging that the judiciary remains a major stakeholder in achieving the vision and mandate of the corporation, said seminars such as this affords the corporation a rare privilege of closely interfacing with the judiciary.

He said one of the major challenges facing the corporation since inception in 1988 is the gross misconception of the basic principles of Deposit Insurance System (DIS) among Nigerians.

According to him, the misconception is responsible for unclaimed deposits following bank closure; various judgments being obtained against the corporation for the liabilities of a closed bank and attachments of the corporation’s assets and garnishee of its corporate accounts in a bid to enforce judgment sum obtained against a closed bank.