The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, has revealed that the Department of State Services (DSS) followed due process before embarking on the raid of the judges’ houses. He is quoted as saying:
In a statement posted on his Twitter account, @GarShehu, he also warned the media to be careful of how they report the issue insisting that it is wrong to present the incident as a confrontation between the Executive and Judicial arms of government. “Reports by a section of the media are giving us cause for concern,” he tweeted. (The Will Newspaper)
There is an old saying that If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck it is a duck. When the department of State Security raids the homes of judges in six states at gun point and arrests judges there is no other explanations than to perceive it as an assault on judges. An arrest of one judge at a time may not be seen as a judiciary assault. But judges in six states? Give me a break.
The problem with this administration is its ability to forget the lessons learned from past activities. Or it could be that they did not learn from past experiences? When the Administration went to court to prosecute the Senate leaders (Senate President, his deputy and others) the world saw it as an assault on the Legislature. The administration eventually withdrew the case from the courts, but the reputation of the Administration was soiled already. That should have taught them a lesson about collective prosecution of the leadership of an equal arm of government.
The same goes to a planned mid-night gestapo-like assault on judges in six states in one night. From all available evidence so far each judge’s case is different from others. There is nothing about the judges’ collective plan to take bribes, so why was each judge not arrested when information on the alleged bribery was obtained? Why wait till SSS had obtained information on “enough judges” to begin to raid their houses?
The Chief justice of the Supreme Court has expressed opinion on the arrests; the Nigerian Bar Association has frowned and expressed disgust over the arrests; other judges have expressed publicly that the arrests were illegal. So when the matter reaches the court who will be qualified to sit in judgement over the cases? The fact is that President Buhari and his Attorney General have once more overstepped the boundaries of their authority.
According to Nigerian constitution Chapter III {VI}[292](1,2)
(1) A judicial officer shall not be removed from his office or appointment before his age of retirement except in the following circumstances:-
(a) in the case of:-
(i) Chief Justice of Nigeria, President of the Court of Appeal, Chief of Judge of the Federal High Court, Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Grand Kadi of the Sharia Abuja and President, Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, by the President acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate.
(ii) Chief Judge of a State, Grand Kadi of a Sharia Court of Appeal or President of a Customary Court of Appeal of a State, by the Governor acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the House of Assembly of the State.
Praying that he be so removed for his inability to discharge the functions of his office or appointment (whether arising from infirmity of mind or of body) or for misconduct or contravention of the Code of Conduct;
(b) in any case, other than those to which paragraph (a) of this subsection applies, by the President or, as the case may be, the Governor acting on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council that the judicial officer be so removed for his inability to discharge the functions of his office or appointment (whether arising from infirmity of mind or of body) or for misconduct or contravention of the Code of Conduct.
(2) Any person who has held office as a judicial officer shall not on ceasing to be a judicial officer for any reason whatsoever thereafter appear or act as a legal practitioner before any court of law or tribunal in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Judiciary need to regain its authority. Its authority is being usurped by several parts of the executive. The case of Obiechina VS Chime is one such example and the current arrests of judges is another painful dimension. The arrests of judges ought to be seen as a coup attempt the same way the arrests of the president and state governors would be seen.
According to published information, the Executive proceeded to take laws into its hands when the Judicial Service Commission (SJC the arm of government responsible for the removal of “bad judges”) failed to cooperate with the investigations) If a group of armed officers arrests the president (the head of the Executive body and his ministers) and holds them in detention even for an hour, it would be considered a coup d’etat and treasonable charges would be brought against the plotters. In this vein, the judges who signed the warrants, the officers that gave the orders to arrest the leadership of the judiciary should be seen as coup plotters and arrested and tried for treasonable felony. Ditto for the all who planned and conducted Enugu elections when the Supreme Court had not cleared the case before it.
This writer had warned before and often that PMB should proceed carefully on his corruption fight; that other issues such as hunger, payment of salaries, education and agriculture should be the focus of the country at this time. Without fixing the systems a corruption fight is a waste of resources.
The judiciary needs to be strengthened not weakened
What is about to happen is a constitutional crisis founded and funded by President Muhammadu Buhari. Nigeria cannot afford a constitutional crisis at this time. PMB’s Attorney General is leading the country away from the path of law and order by misdirecting PMB. He must recognize that unlike all other ministers his (AGN’s) loyalty is both to the president and to the country’s laws. And the SUPERIOR of the two bosses is the Law of the Land.
The Senate should start looking into the president’s assaults first on the Legislature and now on the judiciary to see if they amount to high crimes and misdemeanors and therefore impeachable offences. It might be better to remove the president than to enter into constitutional crises.
Such a crisis would bring back the hated dictatorship.
PMB is putting the carriage before the horse
It will not work
Written by Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba.
