Arrest of Judges over Corruption: Follow due Process of law, Activist Tells Buhari

A human rights activist and Executive Chairman, Centre for Human
Rights and Social Justice(CHRSJ),Comrade Adeniyi,Alimi Sulaiman has
cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the authority of the
Department of State Security Service(DSSS) to follow due process of
law in its operation over the ongoing arrest and investigation of some
Judges for the allegation of corrupt practices which was against the
Code of ethics of judicial officers, condemning the brigandage way
and manner in which the affected Judges were arrested by the
Operatives of the State Security Service in the mid night and early
hour of Saturday.

Comrade Sulaiman, however, praised the Federal Government under the
watch of Buhari by taking the bul by the horn in cleansing of the
judicial sector of the Country which was the last hope of common man,
from corrupt practices, insisting that due process of law should be
followed in dealing with this mindboggling national embarrassment in
the nation’s judicial system as Nigeria was not a banana republic
where there was no rules guiding her conduct.

In a signed statement by the rights activist and made available to
newsmen on Sunday,disclosed that nobody should be seen to be above
the law and the arrested of any corrupt public officials should be
dealth with, according to the law of the land, alleging that the act
of corruption was speaking volume to the highest ebb in the judicial
sector of the country under the watch of the outgoing Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Justice Muhammed Mahmud, adding that President Buhari should
set up an unbiased independent panel of inquiry with the
international best practices ,to investigate the administration of
Justice Mahmud as Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman, National
Judicial Council(NJC).

Sulaiman who doubles as Chairman, Civil Societies Coalition for the
Emancipation of Osun State(CSCEOS), recalled that Justice Mahmud as
Chairman of the apex judicial body in the land, tactically ease out
the courageous and incorruptible Osun Judge, Justice Olamide Folahanmi
Oloyede from the bench, for exposing the corrupt practices of a
Sitting Governor through a Petition as a private citizen to the State
House of Assembly, calling on President Buhari to look at the inhuman
verdict of NJC against the incorruptible and honest jurist.

He added by describing the incorruptible Justice Oloyede as Prophet
of truth, courage and justice and also a woman of great character and
intellectual prowess, who sacrificed the comfort of her office to
expose Rauf Aregbesola’s government corrupt inclination, advising
Buhari not to limit his anti-corruption crusade on the Federal High
Court ,Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Judges alone but to extend
the crusade to States High Court Judges who had been in the habit of
highest bidders to get their judgment.

He then urged President Buhari to revisit Justice Oloyede’s matter and
use his good office to return her back to the bench in order to help
his anti-corruption crusade in the country, noting that Oloyede is a
woman of rule of law who believes in using the temple of justice to
change Nigeria for better.
CHRSJ boss maintained that the menace and cancer of corruption in
Nigeria should be dealth with frontally according to the laid down
rules and regulations, saying that the corruption has been the canker
worm that has eaten deep into the fabric of our judicial system under
Justice Mahmud which made the sector to lose confidence before the
public and international community, adding that nobody should above
the law of the land as law was still higher than any individual.

According to him; “The level of corruption in our judicial sector had
been enormous to the extent that common man does not believe in the
court process again as the last hope of common man because the court
judgments are not meant for lower class of the society but for highest
bidders. President Buhari should not encourage the brigandage approach
of the men of the Department of State Security Service (DSSS) in the
fight against corruption because we are in a democracy and civilized
society. The action of the operatives of State Security Service in
arresting the affected Judges is totally condemnable and unacceptable;
they should not be treated like common criminal when there are
procedures to be followed by security agents.

“At this junction, we must tell ourselves the bitter truth which is
the beauty of our activism. The raw cash, if truly meet in the House
of those Judges, are not augur well for the nation’s judicial officer
who should live above board and it is condemnable for public officers
to keep such gargantuan raw cash of different currencies in their
private residences and the law should be allowed take its due course
in this mater. Following this revelation, if it is true, Nigeria has
finished. I will use this medium to call on well meaning Nigerians at
home and abroad to stop promoting class interest corruption. This is
high time for Federal Government to give more teeth to the anti-graft
agencies in the land if truly want to stamp out corruption in the
land and State Security Service should be stopped to perform the duty
of the anti-graft bodies”.

Sulaiman therefore called on the President Buhari to call the agents
of the State, particularly, the men of Department of State Security
Service (DSSS) to order in this matter by not returning Nigeria to
1984 episode where the rule of law were suspended and rule of might
were invoked by the then Buhari Military Government, stating that
“Nigeria is operating Constitutional democracy where the Constitution
is supreme and bind on every Nigerians. Judicial immunity should be
also respected as nobody is covering corruption in any form