In continuation of arrest of senior judges accused of corruption, eight more will soon be picked up by the Department of State Services, DSS.
Seven judges were earlier arrested in different states across the country between Friday night and Saturday morning.
The judges in custody last night are: Inyang Okoro and Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court, Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Kabir Auta of the Kano High Court, Mu’azu Pindiga of the Gombe High Court, Mohammed Tsamiya of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin and the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice I. A. Umezulike. They would be arraigned in court soon.
A DSS source told Daily Trust that the judges were allowed access to their families, adding that they were cooperating with the agency.
“We still respect them. They are not being treated like common criminals.
“As part of the investigations, three registry staff from various courts were also invited for questioning”, he said.
He added that the corruption cases against the judges were disturbing and that investigations were carried out with “facts and figures.”
“We received petitions against these judges on cases they are handling. The worst part of it is where they collected money.
“We knew the issue would be controversial even before we started,” he said, adding that the corruption in the judiciary was so enormous that some judges took money with both hands from litigants.
“A particular judge entered a departmental store and collected bribe from a go-between. He didn’t even bother to buy anything. He just came out with the money. That is how bad it has become,” he said.
He said Nigeria had lost so much money due to corruption on the part of the judges.
“In the past four years, Nigeria lost multi-million dollars cases against foreigners because of the corruption in the judiciary. Nigeria lost $1.9billion in one case”, he added.
He said the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and others condemning the DSS operation, “should have the courage to take us to court.
“No other agency is constitutionality mandated to handle the issues of subversion, sabotage and espionage apart from us,” he said.
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