It is sickening that the rule of law in the country has become an empty and squeaky platitude for lawyers and judges.
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Kekere-Ekun has inherited petitions against 27 judges, which the National Judicial Council at its 106th meeting recommended their investigation of judicial misconduct. Sadly, what these errant ministers in the temple of justice get as punishment, if found guilty at all, is retirement with all their entitlements paid. This is a slap on the wrist that does not address the deep rot in the sector.
But in the US and UK and other climes from where our jurisprudence and democracy are derived and modelled, “corruption in a judge’s seat does not go unpunished,” Richard Pilgeri, a US prosecutor, told a judge, who presided over the case of Thomas Spargo – another judge who had attempted a $10,000 extortion in New York, in 2009. Spargo was jailed for 27 months. “Without a legal system free of impropriety, nothing works,” was how Pilgeri summed up the situation.
PREMIUM TIMES believes that it is practically impossible to eviscerate the rot in the system if the bad eggs in the judiciary – the bench and bar – escape punitive sanctions, as prescribed in our laws, by being prosecuted and jailed. If this could begin, dignity, respect and awe, which had deserted the bench and the legal profession, alongside public confidence, would be restored.
The new CJN has a herculean task to make the Administration of Criminal Justice Act serve its objective of the speedy dispensation of justice. Judges, lawyers and their clients have defanged it so far. Quizzed by the Senate in 2016 on delayed justice delivery, during his confirmation hearing, retired CJN Mahmud Mohammed quipped: “The problem is with us. We don’t want cases to finish.” This is curious.
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