Tinubu, BOSAN lampoon politicians over outcry on S’Court judgments
Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu and the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN), on Monday, lampooned politicians who are casting aspersion on judges over recent judgments that did not favour them.
While the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN) made their views known in a speech delivered by Chief Joseph Onomigbo Okpoko (SAN) at the valedictory court session in honour of retiring Justice Amiru Sanusi of the Supreme Court, Asiwaju Tinubu spoke on the sideline of the event.
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Tinubu said that the Supreme Court decisions are rooted in rule of law, honesty and integrity of justices which can not be faulted.
He noted that in every election people are bound to win or lose.
“It is natural for the winner to celebrate and losers to try again, he said, adding that to condemn judges for their defeat at election is an act of intolerance.
“They are engaging in acts not in line with practices in advanced democracy,” he said.
On his part, Chief Okpoko (SAN) said that the political class appears not to be ready to appreciate the difficult task of judging and determining issues of fact and law applicable to any case. Rather, “they rush out to criticise the judgments of our courts when they have not read it.”
He said that it is unfortunate that ordinary citizens and other stakeholders who have not occupied the hot seat of a judge and undertook the task of hearing and deciding disputes between parties now take it as part time to criticise judgments and even went to the extent of alleging corruption that they cannot prove.
Though, Okpoko did not specifically mention the judgment on Imo governorship election that have generated heat, he said that the call for resignation a particular judicial officer because the judgment delivered in his court went against their expectation, “is a dangerous excursion into the territory of judicial independence.”
According to BOSAN, “blackmail and intimidation are not compatible bedmates for the effective dispensation of justice,” adding that the political class in Nigeria must respect judicial institution and accept the verdicts of courts and the Supreme Court as final.
However, the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria has disagreed with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, that existing vacancies at the bench of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal should be filled solely by serving judges.
Okpoko (SAN) regretted that for long the country has forgotten to appoint private legal practitioners as justices into the bench of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
He said that the arguments being put forward that appointing private legal practitioners would block the chances of the lawyers who have served as Magistrate and the lower court was misplaced because the post of a judge is an appointive position and not by promotion.
“So, let the door be open to every legible lawyer as enshrined in Section 231(3) and Section 238(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended),” he added.
