It’s not enough to retire. Let’s prosecute them

The National Judicial Council (NJC) has recommended the compulsory retirement of Justices O. Gbajabiamila of the High Court of Lagos State and Idris M. J. Evuti of the High Court of Niger State, over professional misconduct.

The commission also recommended that both Justices Tanko Yusuf Usman of High Court of Niger State, whose retirement had earlier been accepted, and Justice Evuti, should refund monies paid to them, for the months they gained by tampering with their birth records. We hope that the judges would also be tried, if by their conduct they breached any law of the land, apart from the usual punishment of compulsory retirement by the NJC.

Not long ago, we had canvassed that judges who soil their esteemed reputation should, in addition to retirement be prosecuted under the law, as a deterrent to abuses from the bench. Our position is premised on the grave consequences of a judge, who literally exercises the power of life and death, engaging in a misdemeanour. Such a procedure we canvassed would deter judges who are the hallowed guardians of our democracy and the proverbial common man, from bringing that institution to disrepute.

For the present cases, we urge the NJC to critically examine the issues raised against the judges and determine those that require further investigations by prosecuting agencies, and forward their files to them. The cases against the judges, as stated by the acting director of information, the NJC, Soji Oye, are as varied as they are intriguing.

Justice Gbajabiamila, according to Mr. Oye, was retired over his handling of suit no. ID/1279/2007, P. K.Ojo vs SDV & SCOA Nigeria Plc., for which he reportedly delivered judgment 22 months after written addresses were filed, well beyond the 90 days prescribed by the 1999 constitution.

The judge was also alleged to have continued to hear the suit after being notified of the pendency of an appeal and a motion for stay, at the court of appeal. He also failed to make available a copy of the judgment, 40 days after the judgment, many weeks above the seven days provided for by the constitution. On his part, Justice Evuti allegedly used three different birthdays over the years. He was reported to have alternatively professed his birth days as September 15, 1950, April 10, 1953 and April 1, 1951. The NJC consequently recommended that salaries earned from September 2015, when he should have retired be recovered and sent back to NJC, which paid the salaries.

The other judge, Justice Usman, affected by the investigation done by the NJC, under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, sent in his retirement papers, which were accepted, before the commission met. He was accused of falsifying his age, and the commission consequently requested the Niger State government to deduct the salaries paid to him from June 2015, when he should have retired from the Bench. The report also said that the petition written against Justice Saliu Saidu of the Federal High Court, Lagos, was unsubstantiated.

Even with or without further intervention by prosecutor agencies, it is sad that judges would be engaged in some of the misdemeanours listed against the compulsorily retired judges. What would make a judge flagrantly break the laws of the land, by treating a matter before him with laxity? Also why would a judge invested with an office that requires high moral rectitude, engage in shuffling his year of birth, over and over?

We urge our judges to always be above board, to gift Nigerians the all-important trust and confidence in that vital artery of any modern state.