SERAP to Buhari, instruct DSS to release all arrested judges unconditionally

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to instruct the Department of State Security (DSS) to immediately and unconditionally release all judges in its custody.

SERAP stated this in a letter to President Buhari on Sunday and signed by its executive director, Adetokunbo Mumuni.

In the letter, SERAP urged President Buhari to among other things, to urgently instruct the DSS to immediately and unconditionally release all the judges arrested by them, to end continuing intimidation and harassment of the judiciary across the country; publicly commit that his government will not seek to undermine the integrity, sanctity, authority and independence of the judiciary in its efforts to combat judicial corruption and avoid any action that tends to weaken judiciary independence and public confidence in the judiciary.

It also asked that Buhari must ensure that justice is not only done, but must also appear to be done in the fight against judicial corruption and must promptly, thoroughly, transparently and impartially investigate attacks against judges by DSS and bring to justice anyone responsible.

The letter was copied to Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Monica Pinto, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

Part of it reads, “If following the receipt and/or publication of this letter, your government fails or refuses to immediately and unconditionally release the judges as requested, SERAP would promptly consider appropriate legal options nationally and internationally to ensure the full and effective implementation of our requests.

“We are seriously concerned about the wave of arrests, intimidation and harassment of judges across the country by the DSS. While we fully support the government’s efforts to eradicate judicial corruption, we cannot accept anticorruption strategies and methods which patently offend the rule of law and undermine the authority, integrity, sanctity and independence of the judiciary.”

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“SERAP believes that strategies and methods to sanction suspected corrupt judges must never have an inhibiting or chilling effect on the authority, sanctity, integrity and independence of the judiciary.

“Uncertainty of the processes and grounds on which suspected corrupt judges can be sanctioned would affect the capacity of all judges to act independently, and public confidence in the judiciary. Judges, like other constitutional functionaries must face the law if they depart from or deceive the law, such as when they are suspected of engaging in corruption. But what the DSS has done is a blow to the independence of judiciary, and a dangerous precedent that should not be allowed to stand.

“The value of the principle of judicial independence is that it protects judges from arbitrary sanctions by the Government. The way this country dispenses justice and treats its judges will show the moral and legal character to which it can pretend.

“SERAP is concerned that the action by the DSS if allowed to stand or continue, would make judges susceptible to pressure from the executive. Thus, instead of fulfilling the stated aim of eradicating judicial corruption, the actions of the DSS have served to undermine the independence of the judiciary in Nigeria, and reinforce the practices under successive governments of undue political interference in the judiciary.”

 

 

 

 

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