Presidency, NJC Standoff Continues as Council Sets up Ethics Committee



As the myriad of reactions continue to trail the arrest of some judges by the Department of State Security (DSS) and the probe of others by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on allegations of corruption, leading to mounting pressure that the affected judicial officers step down until they are exonerated, the standoff between presidency and the National Judicial Council (NJC) on the fate of the judges has continued to linger.

This was evident monday when the Chairman of the NJC and Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed inaugurated a 10-man Judicial Ethics Committee with a mandate to review the code of conduct for judicial officers in the country.


A former CJN, Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi, will head the committee while another retired justice of the Supreme Court and erstwhile Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, is also a member.

Other members of the committee include the former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdullahi; President of the National Industrial Court, Justice Babatunde Adejumo; Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Ishaq Bello; President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN); two retired justices of the Supreme Court, as well as a former President of the NBA, Chief Okey Wali (SAN).

The inauguration of the ethics committee, explained legal pundits yesterday, was indicative that neither the NJC, nor the presidency was willing to back down on the judges indicted for corruption.

A senior lawyer who spoke to THISDAY explained that the presidency would rather that the judges accused of corruption step aside until they are cleared of the charges.

However, the NJC has doubled down insisting that doing so would amount to cowing to the executive arm of government. Specifically, the CJN at the weekend described the arrest of the judges as an assault on the judiciary.

Justice Mohammed also said that two weeks after the DSS raided and arrested the judges, Nigeria’s secret police was yet to furnish it with any complaint against the indicted judges.

According to the lawyer, “If the NJC succumbs by asking the judges to step aside, the council will lose its independence forever.

“Besides, the general feeling among the judges and NJC is that the executive arm is persecuting judges whom it feels did not give the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) favourable judgments during the appeals on election cases challenging the victories of some PDP governors.

Read more http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/10/25/presidency-njc-standoff-continues-as-council-sets-up-ethics-committee/

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