He said it was particularly bad when lawyers, who should defend judges, who could not speak for themselves, join politicians to attack judges. As a result of this, Justice Alogba said most judges lack the motivation to defend their oath of office, knowing that there was no one to defend them. Justice Alogba said this at the weekend during the 2016/2017 annual Law Week of the Lagos Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association. He represented the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade, at the programme. Justice Alogba said, “Sometimes we see lawyers joining the politicians in trying to get judges out of the way. When judges are attacked, no one stands up for them. A judge is like an orphan. “But if you know that people will stand by you, you will fight to defend your oath of office.” He called for a reform of the appointment process of judges in order to reduce political influences. The keynote speaker at the Law Week, with the theme, ‘Judicial independence and democratic process,’ Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), bemoaned the failure of the executive to comply with the provision of the constitution stipulating financial autonomy for the judiciary. Agbakoba said there was no point in the Chief Justice of Nigeria celebrating with the President on Independence Day, if the CJN could not ask for fund to run the judiciary. “I find it insulting that it’s a level 9 civil servant that prepares and pays judiciary fund when the third arm of government ought to be autonomous. “I took the battle to court and I won the case but government has failed to implement the judgment till date,” Agbakoba said. Agbakoba, who accused the executive arm of government of enslaving the judiciary, called on the new leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association to take up the fight. He said judges in the country had not received the best of treatment, as, according to him, most of them usually had no house to go to upon retirement. “Most of the Supreme Court justices retired without a house of their own while some legislators are collecting billions of naira for doing nothing. “The courts are institutionally enslaved to the executive. This should be the first point of intervention of the NBA,” Agbakoba said. While recalling his time on the bench, a retired justice of the Supreme Court, Justice George Oguntade, said any judge who dared to pronounce against the executive arm of government was often marked as target for harassment or denial of perquisites of office.]]>