A constitutional lawyer, Samuel Jibrin Okutepa, SAN has expressed his thoughts on the state of the nation’s Judiciary. He believes it is the judiciary that can save itself from the ridicule and embarrassment it is being subjected to by members of the political class, using some members of the legal profession.

In a statement made available to TheNigeriaLawyer (TNL), the learned silk says “It is not enough to lament that the judiciary is not independent. I hold the view that the judicial arm of government must secure and defend its independence for itself. This it can do by calling to order some of itself members who give rooms for suspicious decisions.

“the golden rule is that justice must not only be done but must manifestly be seen to be done.”

Okutepa, SAN says there are wide spread belief that some judicial officers get appointed through lobbying done on their behalf by some politicians and some litigants lobby for favourable judgments from some judicial officers.

“These allegations are common on our streets. Beside lawyers arguing the causes, there are allegations that some litigants do leg works to get judgment especially in election related matters.
“These are allegations that should not be ignored. The judiciary must have policing mechanisms to see that judicial officers are above board and those involved shoddy deals and decisions are punished.

Waiting for petitions is not enough. There must be monitoring schemes that monitor performances of judicial officers.
Some politicians, it is alleged approach some of these judicial officers for favour.”

Okutepa, SAN suggests that time has come for appointing authorities to look beyond paper questions and look for character and intergity of the would be judicial officers. “Those who have propensities to lobby for judgments while practicing as lawyers must not be allowed to be appointed to the bench.

“Those who have no strong character to resist temptation of polluting justice should have no place on our bench. The bench must be populated by men and women of strong character and learning.”

His statement reads in part:

“The judiciary must see to it that all those working in the arm must be above board. We have come to cross road and the Nigerian judiciary must give itself independence. The political class will always wants to have dominance over the judiciary, but it lies in the hands of judiciary to say no to slavery. The time for our judiciary to stand up and to use its enormous powers to bring light to the darkness hovering in our legal horizon is now.

“The judiciary must be angry at injustice in whatever forms it manifests and give justice to litigants before it. The judicial arm of government must avoid giving legitimacy to illegitimate conduct either in art of governance or in our electoral jurisprudence.

“That is why I believe any principle of law that puts roadblocks on the roads to justice must be dismantled for undiluted justice to be done.”

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