NJC recalled a common beggar, frustrating anti-corruption war –Sagay

The chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Itse Sagay, has accused the judiciary of recalling a common beggar to the bench and frustrating the war against corruption.

He said the judiciary had been hostile towards efforts to rid the country of graft, adding that it must either embrace the fight against corruption by the executive or aid the country to totally collapse.

Sagay stated this in his closing remarks at a conference on “Promoting International Cooperation in Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Enhancing Asset Recovery to Foster Sustainable Development” in Abuja.

The three-day event was put together by PACAC in collaboration with the ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs.

Sagay who bemoaned the perceived decay in the judiciary, which according to him requires cleaning, wondered how the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC) could recall judges suspended over allegations of corruption.

He said, “NJC’s decision to recall them, especially Adeniyi Ademola, whose case is a life case, and others who have not been charged but are going to be charged, for me, is a sign of hostility to the fight against corruption.

“We cannot afford the judicial hierarchy to engage in espirit de corps with members of their group that have fallen in the corruption struggle.

“They must join the executive whose mantra is total or near elimination of corruption for the sake of the survival of this country. Judges have a duty to join in this determination.

“So, that sort of decision that was taken gives the impression that they are hostile to the struggle. That’s one reason I said they’re not on board,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

Painting a picture of a decayed legal institution, Sagay said, “There are so many judges now who demand money from lawyers or accept money from them. I know a judge who will come to you today and say: ‘My mother died, please send money to me’. Lawyers will send N200,000 to him. The next day, he’d say: ‘My daughter is getting married’. Another day: ‘My uncle has been made a chief; we’re contributing.’

“Nobody in the judicial hierarchy will deny that these judges exist. And one of them is among those going back now. He has collected money from hundreds of lawyers. And everybody knows this.

“Should that person be on the Bench? He has desecrated the Bench; he has brought it down; he’s a common beggar, who is ready to compromise his position if you give him money on the excuse of burying his father.

“That man has millions of naira and dollars in his account already accumulated through this means. People like that are being asked to go back. That’s why I said the judiciary, for now, is not with us in the struggle against corruption, and they need to be with us if that struggle is not to crash and if this country is not to crash with it.”

The PACAC chairman added, that whatever the situation the executive will continue to engage the judiciary for them to see reasons to join the fight against corruption, and said that should they fail to do so, that the future of the country will remain bleak.

“We interact with judges a lot, from the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to the magistrates. We’ve visited most of them, and we’ll keep on visiting and talking and persuading them to realise that it is in their own interest to be as fervent and determined and passionate about elimiminating the sourge of corruption, and that any of their brethren who is suspected to be guilty of corruption is a destroyer of all that the judiciary stands for. He’s an enemy of the judiciary.

“The judiciary, in my view, is the highest of the three arms of government. When a judge descends from that level and comes into the mud to join in looting and accepting money from lawyers who have no name to protect, the judicial hierarchy, the clean ones should come down hard on such judges, harder than the poor man who is sentenced everyday for stealing a goat.

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“The judge who is guilty of corruption is almost guilty of a crime against humanity, because what he is doing is to undermine the whole integrity of the state.

“It means that when we have a major issue that can affect the future of the country, we can’t go to him, because he’s dishonest, he lacks integrity and is fraudulent and will not decide the case according to the justice of it.

“So it’s a very dangerous thing that is happening now and the judges must embrace the fight against corruption, otherwise this country has no future,” he said.

Collaborating Sagay, Professor of International law and jurisprudence Akin Oyebode said, “I think the judiciary now seeks redemption because of its transgressions. We just have to wish them well and hope that a greater day lies ahead for judges in contemporary times.”

He attributed the cause of the situation to appointment of “misfits” as judges.

 

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