Trouble for Corrupt judges, FG vows they will face trial

Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice,  Abubakar Malami (SAN), yesterday assured that the anti-graft war of the Buhari administration would soon be extended to the judiciary. Those who were confirmed to have compromised in the discharge of their duties would face the music.
This is even as the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has advocated stricter sanctions for judges who breached their oaths.
Malami, who spoke in Lagos during the launch of SERAP’s report on the judiciary titled: “Go Home and Sin No More: Corrupt Judges Escaping from Justice in Nigeria,” assured that President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign would be total, unsparing and unrestricted.
The AGF, who was represented by his Special Assistant on White Collar Crimes, Mr. Abiodun Aikomo, insisted that the executive was not constitutionally barred from probing and prosecuting judges for acts of corruption in the exercise of their functions.
He, however, pledged that the rights of those accused of corruption would be fully respected in the enforcement of the law.
Also speaking at the presentation of the report on alleged corruption in the judiciary, Executive Director of SERAP, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, urged the National Judicial Council (NJC) to immediately pass the list of judicial officers found to have compromised in the discharge of their duties to Malami and the nation’s anti-graft agencies for prosecution.
Dismissal of corrupt judges without subsequent prosecution, he insisted, did not accord with the notion of equality of all before the law. If others were being prosecuted for alleged crimes, Mumuni said, there was no legal justification for excluding judges.
Giving details of the report, he said SERAP has recommended a review of the law on composition of the NJC to enable a retired judge of proven integrity chair the disciplinary organ for judicial officers to ensure greater transparency, efficiency and accountability.
Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade, urged lawyers and members of the Bench to collaborate in tackling corruption in the judiciary. Atilade, who was represented by the Deputy Chief Registrar (Legal) of the state’s High Court, Mrs. Busola Okunnuga, however, assured that the judiciary was doing a lot to ensure probity and uncompromised settlement of disputes in the justice sector.