Nigeria: Arrests of judges blasted as intimidation play

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria

The body tasked with protecting the independence of Nigeria’s judiciary Friday blasted recent arrests of judges for alleged corruption as an intimidation move, insisting that the secret police had exceeded their mandate.

“The council expresses grave concern on the recent invasion of the residences and arrest of some serving and suspended judicial officers; and condemned the action in its entirety,” the National Judicial Council (NJC) said in a statement early Friday following an emergency meeting.

“The Council viewed the action as a threat to the independence of the judiciary, which portends great danger to our democracy; and also considered the action as a clear attempt by the DSS to humiliate, intimidate, denigrate, and cow the Judiciary,” it added, using the acronym for the Department of State Services, or secret police.

The council is the statutory body responsible for the welfare and discipline of judicial officers in Nigeria.

The body rejected claims that it was shielding corrupt judges from prosecution, adding that it had only received and investigated petitions from the secret police against two of the seven judges arrested.

“The Council vehemently denounces a situation whereby the psyche of Judicial Officers in the Federation is subjected to a level where they would be afraid to discharge their Constitutional judicial functions, without fear or favour, intimidation, victimization or suppression," said the statement.

President Muhammadu Buhari – who has often accused judges and lawyers of frustrating his anti-graft campaign – said the raids on the judges’ homes were proper and meant to tackle corruption in their ranks.

The DSS secret police, for its part, said it acted against the judges because the NJC was stalling action on the allegations against them. It said hundreds of thousands in foreign currency were recovered during the raid, the first of its kind in Nigeria’s history.