ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.
A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 5. NO 155. 31st July, 2016.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32).
JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED!
Speedy trial in pursuit of the dispensation of undelayed justice should not be deemed to be a process deliberately employed in courts to always favour the prosecution in order to undermine the assumed innocence of the accused persons or defendants until the contrary was proved! The Judiciary, according to the 1999 Federal Republic of Nigeria's Constitution, is the third arm of the Federal three-tier system of the democratic government and is expected to play the role of an arbiter in every dispute brought before it whether they be civil or criminal litigations; however a lot of hue and cry including castigation of Nigeria's judiciary by patriotic citizens - with the exception of criminally-minded corrupt politicians - had become commonplace for decades since independence from British colonial administration! In most recent times especially in the 14 months of the Change Administration, the No.1 Citizen in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari, have had cause to both solicit the co-operation of the Judiciary in the onerous fight against corruption and also to criticize the reticent and lukewarm attitude of the respected body towards the crusade! Specifically, he complained that delay tactics adopted by judicial officers and lawyers to stall progress in the dispensation of justice in the "ongoing fight against trials of corruption suspects", which he said could create the negative impression that crime pays. Nigeria is blessed with a President who has his ears to the ground and craves to sooth social injustices caused through judicial dereliction of duty to the larger masses on whom his government heavily depended for socio-economic and political success of his Party's lofty policies and ideologies. The truth remains that the ripple negatives effects of all forms of social injustices through the courts like, unlawful detentions, etc, were usually borne by the masses who have been continuously short-changed in matters of dividends of democracy. Who are the "awaiting trial detainees" that have congested Nigerian prison yards and various Police cells across the nation other than the derogated common men and women of our societies who could not obtain bail without bribing relevant officials while the courts and judges on whose doorsteps lied the root cause of social injustice and prison congestion have decided to blow hot and cold and threaten to make scape goats of media practitioners whom dared publish any detrimental news about frivolous court injunctions by the eminent jurists!
Should The Common Man Still Hope For Justice In Nigeria's Judiciary? Majority of the awaiting trial detainees, held in the various Police cells across Nigeria and who have been refused bail, have since died incarcerated! Sometime in 2014, a Committee set up by the Interior Minister reported that the Nigerian Prisons were congested because they housed more than a triple number of inmates specified, adding, “the slow process of trial of inmates by the courts was also responsible for more than 90per cent of prison population in urban centres.” The Committee concluded that Nigerian prisons were unfit for human habitation as most detainees were usually ill because they were kept under inhuman conditions, shackled and manacled like condemned dangerous criminals! These awaiting-trial detainees are the poor masses of our societies, as no rich man or woman ever waited for any trial since favourable and pre-determined judgments were courier-delivered to their homes, in some cases, by crooked judges!
In his petition to the Judiciary President Buhari reminded the learned benchers that they should be in the fore front of efforts to develop right- based jurisprudence as an element in the multi-disciplinary approach advocated in the fight against corruption by enforcing applicable laws to avoid delay in ensuring criminal justice administration because corruption cases filled by government were not progressing as they should! He also complained that in spite of the Criminal Justice Act of 2015, the courts allowed some lawyers to frustrate the Reforms introduced by law and called for a change of attitude for a collective action in building a new Nigeria in the face of dwindling revenue by tackling two ILLS - Waste and Corruption simultaneously! "To this end the Judiciary is under a duty to keep its house in order and ensure that the public which it serves sees this," he added.
We are aware that the Presidential counsel did not go down well with some members of the Judiciary - especially those who were still loyal to the past very corrupt consecutive administrations, but we know that sooner than later they would be shown the door as their skeletons are exposed to all Nigerians! Judicial powers of the Nigerian State, both at the Federal and State levels, are vested in the JUDICATURE, which consist of the superior courts of record, established for the Federation, according to Section 6, subsection (5) (a) to (i) of the 1999 Constitution.
These consist of the following: the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the Court of Appeal, the Federal High Court, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, a High Court of a State, the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, a Sharia Court of Appeal of a State, the Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and a Customary Court of Appeal of a State.
A search-light into the activities of some of these COURTS revealed dirty, sordid and gruesome manipulation and perversion of the course of justice by corrupt judges! According to an insider, a retired President of the Court of Appeal, the Nigerian Judiciary harbours corrupt elements who are politicians and government apologists who attend all manner of social gatherings and frolic even with litigants with pending cases before their courts!
How can judges decide cases against their political parties and people they wine and dine with?
As a guest speaker at a lecture titled, “Nigeria at Centenary: A Nation In Bondage”, the retired President of the Court of Appeal said that the noble efforts of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, to sanitize and rid the judiciary of corrupt elements were frustrated by “the crop of people calling the shots at the Nigerian Judicial Council [NJC],” adding that some dishonourable people, “not fit to be judges and senior lawyers, got into the system, made it to the highest level of the judicial career and subsequently frustrated the common man’s quest for justice and equity!”
He also claimed that it was an open truth that, both serving and retired judges acted as the “arrangees” or couriers, who reached out to “purchase justice on behalf of crooked litigants” and concluded that the problems with the Nigerian Judiciary might be compounded or unresolved for a long time because Nigerians naturally hated the truth and whoever dared voice the truth was marked for destruction!
We salute the courage of this fearless retired President of the Court of Appeal whose entire professional career at both the Bar and the Bench, remained untainted and impeccable like the likes of Justices Chukwudi Oputa, Bobakayode Eso, Ayo G.Irikefe, John Idowu Conrad Taylor, Ovie Whiskey, Chiefs ‘Tunji Braithwaite and Gani Fawehinmi etc; because what we have today are judges who have made Nigeria’s justice system by itself very criminal.
However all is not lost because the present crop of eminent jurists of the National Judicial Council (NJC), are men of proven integrity who have vowed to support the Change Administration to destroy corruption at all cost. Recently, FOUR JUDGES, have gone through the disciplinary hammer for various offences of judicial misconduct - two in April and another two in July, 2016, respectively - in Lagos, Niger, and Osun States.
We have this official statement also by the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC], that some serving judges are deeply immersed in corrupt practices. This high-profile revelation should alarm all Nigerians, especially the down-trodden whose last hope is rested on the judiciary as their final ARBITER!
It was a divine miracle that the EFCC, which was notorious for not respecting the Masses Petitions, decided to probe the myriads of petitions levelled against the said judges and traced into their accounts, hundreds of millions of naira!
These fraudulent judges who also possess multi-million naira worth of assets are alleged to have adopted unconventional methods, such as accepting VALUE CARDS and PIN NUMBERS from criminal litigants, who approached them for FAVOURABLE JUDGEMENTS in order to beat the various anti-corruption agencies!
The malaise which has dented the image of the Judiciary, is no doubt an indictment on past administrations, which encouraged corruption in all its ramifications through the under-staffing and under-funding of anti-graft agencies which should check-mate any form of fraudulent venture by any citizen of this great nation!
At the Federal level, Mr. President appoints the judges, while the Governors perform this exercise at the State levels according to constitutional principles, but the practice was that the judges’ remunerations were bound to the whim and caprice of their EMPLOYERS who held the REMOTE CONTROL for the judgement of litigations which must favour them and their cronies until now that the body is financially independent!
Is The Nigerian Judiciary Beyond Redemption?
With the Change Administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the President refused to interfere with the independence of the Judiciary as the third tier of government but had insisted that quicker dispensation of justice would signal hope and peace of mind for the downtrodden, either as defendants or litigants as justice delayed is as good as justice denied! The Change Administration should be more pro-active in funding the EFCC to pursue all of its investigations to logical conclusion, expose all allegations of graft against these judges and publicly bring them to justice in order to purge and cleanse the judiciary, restore her reputation and establish a deterrent to others of their ilk! Of the late Supreme Court Judge, Bobakayode Eso, (1925-2012), were the following WORDS ON MARBLE crafted: “He was an Icon even in death; Nigeria may never have his replacement – a very rare breed. Justice Eso was an untainted Judge with high integrity; one of the great Nigerians, incorruptible, academic, intelligent, serious-minded patriotic, scandal-free. A courageous judge and a consistent advocate for an independent judiciary whose long and exemplary life was dedicated to the service of law and order and the dispensation of true justice, equity and fairness to all.”
We need more of the Eso’s, Conrad Taylors, Gani Fawehinmi’s, Oputas in our modern judiciary to re-build and restore the lost confidence of the COMMON MAN in Nigeria’s judicial system. We have a crop of patriotic legal minds, men and women of proven integrity who are ready to serve our great nation without soiling their hands and family names! What are the expectations of GOD in respect of Judges’ ethics when conducting themselves in office?
(a)They should be capable and God-fearing.[Exodus.18:21; 2Samuel.23:3; Ezra.7:25].
(b)Truthful.[Deuteronomy.16:19].
(c)Must have hatred for covetousness. [Exo.18:21].
(d)Must be of a disposition to refuse bribes.[Exo.23:8].
(e)Wise and understanding.[Deut.1:13].
(f)Articulate and impeccable.[Deut.1:13,16].
(g)Having love of justice and judgment.[Deut.1:16,16:18-19,27:19,Zechariah.7:9-10].
(h)Without respect of persons.[Deut.1:17;16:19;25:1;Isaiah.5:23].
(i)Fearless.[Deut.1:17].
(j)Conscientious.[Deut.1:17].
(k)Strong and courageous. [Joshua.1:7].
(l)Obedient to the law.[Josh.1:7-8].
Nigeria had in the past produced some and very few decent, brave, fearless, intelligent, impeccable and incorruptible judges, who avoided filthy lucre, treaded the path of integrity and lived above board! We can still groom such patriotic citizens in this new Change Dispensation; but all hands must be on deck to expose all acts of corruption not only in the Judiciary but also in the Executive and the Legislature for a better Nigeria that our posterity would be proud of, to thrive! Amen.
Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to: facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.
If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.
I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.
