SAN FRANCISCO, December 02, (THEWILL) – Nigerians have been called upon to expose corrupt judges if they have verifiable evidence.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, who made the call in Abuja Wednesday asked those with evidence of corruption against any judge to submit same to the National Judicial Commission (NJC).
The CJN made the call at the swearing-in ceremony of 30 judges recently appointed for the Federal High Court in Abuja, saying some judges and judicial staff might be complicit in corrupt practices.
While noting that the newly sworn-in judges went through rigorous selection exercise before their appointment, the CJN said: “I wish to address the vexed issue of judicial corruption. This is because allegations about corrupt judicial officers and staff now make headline news on a more frequent basis.
“With each allegation that passes, the need is ever present for the judiciary to address this issue and I feel it necessary to once again do so. I will not hide away from the reality that some judges and judicial staff may be complicit in corrupt practices, however, I must assert that corruption within the judiciary is only imbibed by a minute minority.”
Reiterating the need for the judiciary to sanitise itself, the CJN said “he who alleges must prove.”
According to him, “ This will indeed be done where accusers themselves avail us the particulars of these incidences of judicial corruption as well as the identity of the perpetrators, so that the National Judicial Council can act promptly and appropriately to remove such deviants from the Bench.”
On the process of appointing the judges, he noted that the process began in 2014 and that over 2,000 applications were received by the Federal Judicial Service Commission.
“The prospective candidates were further assessed by the FJSC on the basis of strict criteria such as sound knowledge of the law, good reputation, and seniority, in addition to other criteria too numerous to list here.
“It is important to state at this juncture that acts such as lobbying for appointment, exhibition of bad behaviour in and out of court, influence peddling, rendering dishonest or questionable legal opinions, submission of false credentials are just some of those conducts exhaustively listed in the 2014 Guidelines as acts that would preclude appointment to judicial office and I make bold to say that all such acts were considered in the final configuration of this process,” he said.
