Senior lawyers know corrupt judges, court officials – Falana

Andrew Orolua, Abuja.

A human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), has said that senior lawyers in the country know “all corrupt judges and court officials”, and that “the information is freely circulated among lawyers”.

He said members of the public also knew judges who collect money from them either directly or through lawyers or court clerks.

According to a statement issued by Mr. Tayo Soyemi of ‘Falana and Falana Chambers’, on Thursday, the human rights lawyer disclosed these in a paper entitled: ‘Access to Justice: Socio-Cultural, Economic And Geographical limitations thereto-a critique’ which he delivered at an event organised by the Ondo state judiciary.

“If the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is committed to the eradication of judicial corruption, it has the capacity to do so. With 120 branches spread across the country, the NBA can police judges, lawyers and court officials with a view to stamping out corrupt practices,” he added.

According to him, “when the Ghana Bar Association was paying lip service to corruption, a journalist decided to video record judges who were negotiating and collecting bribes. At the end of the recording he exposed, named and shamed the indicted judges. They were promptly investigated by the Ghana Judicial Council and dismissed from the bench.”

He asked the NBA and the National Judicial Council to adopt inbuilt mechanism to remove corruption from the judiciary.

“Because the NBA was condemning corruption without adopting any concrete measures to stop it, the security and anti-graft agencies recently seized the initiative and arrested judges in the dead of the night to the eternal embarrassment of the legal profession. To prevent any further embarrassment of our judges, the NBA and NJC ought to adopt an inbuilt mechanism for exterminating the menace of corruption from the bar and bench,” he warned.

He added that the intervention of the Chief Justice of Nigeria by establishing special courts to try corruption cases would go a long way in ensuring that justice was done, and also speed up the trial of corruption cases in all our courts.

He said that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act ( ACJA) has humanized the criminal justice system by obviating delay in criminal trials. But he regretted that our judges and lawyers have refused to take advantage of the relevant adjectival and procedural laws to prevent the denial of access to justice to disadvantaged and vulnerable people in the society.

“We need judges who are prepared to insist that their hands cannot be tied by unjust laws to do injustice even if the heavens would fall. It is not sufficient for our judges to quote Lord Denning with relish. Our judges must emulate him by ensuring that the gates of our courts are flung open to citizens with genuine grievances”

He also said that “like Justice Krishner Iyer of India our judges must actualise the socioeconomic rights enshrined in Chapter 2 of the Constitution and not leave them inchoate and barren.”

“Like Justice Akinola Aguda, our judges must always realize that the law can be used to promote social justice in a manner that the commonwealth is not concentrated in the hands of a few while majority of the people wallow in abject poverty.

And like Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), who successfully defeated the anachronistic doctrine of locus standi our lawyers should challenge other obnoxious laws and legal principles which have denied the Nigerian people access to justice.”

“To check the growing culture of executive lawlessness and official impunity in the country public interest litigation ought to be encouraged and promoted. To this effect the anachronistic doctrine of locus standi should be abolished. The doctrine of locus standi should be relaxed in public interest cases as laid down by the Supreme Court in Fawehinmi v Akilu.”