Judges who embarrass judiciary should be sacked- SAN
By Taiye Agbaje
A Professor of Law, Yemi Akinseye-George, SAN, on Friday, said any judge who embarrassed the judiciary should be sacked.
Akinseye-George stated this in an interview with newsmen during the closing ceremony of the 6th Annual Criminal Law Review Conference organised by the Rule of Law Development Foundation in Abuja.
He commended the National Judicial Council (NJC), chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, on its recent outcome of investigations on some judges in the country.
“The reason the judiciary is being criticised is because the judges are also humans. You cannot have a perfect judiciary in an imperfect environment. But that is not an excuse for not attempting to be perfect.
“The judiciary is the last hope of a common man and members of the public expect, and rightly too, that the judiciary will be above board. And that is why they keep demanding for more.
“It is the judiciary that can stabilise the democracy of this country because the political branches; the executive and legislature, must continue to be political. They must be partisan, they must be bias, but the judiciary must stand aloof from the executive and the legislature.
“They must call a spade, a spade. They must save this country from the excesses of politicians. That is why we commend the approaches of the new Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Kekere-Ekun.
“There was a panel that sat recently of the NJC that came up with specific decisions. Some judges were sacked, some cautioned and some were commended. That should happens regularly. The fact that judges are given up to 70 years of retirement does not mean that you should keep everybody there up to 70 years.
“Some should be told to go, if they embarrass the judiciary or embarrass the country. But of course, the whole process must be subjected to fairness, fair hearing,” he said.
The legal luminary said though in the past, there were such actions taken by the NJC, he said the instant decision was highly commended.
“What is different this time around is that they have called a spade, a spade. Those that were retired were asked to refund the money that was wrongly collected. How can a judge, who heads a judiciary and who has falsified his age, retired to go home without any punishment?
“NJC has done the right thing by saying, in addition to your retirement, you must refund the funds that you earned illegally through the wrong declaration of age.
“Those who were found not to be culpable like My Lord, Hon. Justice Lifu, were also rightly discharged and acquitted by the NJC,” he said.
Akinseye-George, who said constructive criticism of the judiciary is welcome, said the judiciary too must ensure that it applies the law in accordance with the laid down constitution.
“As long as they do that, they will be vindicated by posterity,” he said.
He commended Mr Joseph Daudu, SAN, the Coordinator of the Rule of Law Development Foundation, on his contribution to the development of the Nigerian jurisprudence through the annual conference.
He described the event as “an intellectually loaded conference that assembled an uncommon group of scholars and seasoned practitioners.”
Mrs Ozioma Izuora the lead presenter and a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Baze University, Abuja, said different experiences were shared at the meeting to improve on the country’s justice system.
Earlier, Mr Daudu, said the Criminal Law Review Conference commenced six years ago as one of the flagship events of the foundation.
He said it was essentially to provide an annual forum for the review of all developments, particularly novel developments in the field of crime apprehension, crime prosecution, crime adjudication and the post adjudicatory processes and institutions of the criminal justice system.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the five-day event was titled: “Optimising the Administration of Criminal Justice in Nigeria: How to Navigate Emerging and Systemic Challenges of Insecurity and Economic Hardship”.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
edited by Sadiya Hamza
