The Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, says some senior lawyers are responsible for the increased level of corruption the nation’s judiciary is faced with, stressing that they not only aid, but equally abet corruption within the Bench.
The CJN spoke when the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, led by its National President, Chief Augustine Alegeh, SAN, paid him a courtesy visit over the weekend. He further revealed that corrupt politicians were in the habit of using lawyers to tempt judges with bribes.
Justice Mohammed consequently tasked the NBA to put in more effort towards expunging ‘some corrupt elements’ within its fold, as he warned that if allowed to go unchecked, the situation portends grave danger for the justice system in the country.
He equally assured the delegation that he will re-invigorate the judicial cleansing process that was commenced by his predecessors, even as he lamented that lawyers have so far acted as clog to the wheel of weeding out corrupt judges from the Bench.
Still in his address to the delegation, the CJN also regretted that senior lawyers were usually the first people to rush to court to secure an order of injunction restraining the National Judicial Council, NJC, from investigating judges that acted wrongly.
Hear him, “I want to use this opportunity to urge the Bar to put the interest of the system far and above the individuals. Imagine this scenario; you in the Bar decry the ‘rots’ on the Bench, calling for disciplining and cleansing of the judiciary by weeding out the bad eggs on the Bench.
“Yet, you are the first to jump to the court to seek restraining order on NJC to stop it from the investigation and trial of a judge based on a petition brought against the judge before the council. How then is the principle of fair hearing sustained?”
The Justices of the Supreme Court who joined the Chief Justice to receive the visitors were Justices Mohammed Tanko Ibrahim, John Fabiyi, and Bode Rhodes-Vivour.
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