President Muhammadu Buhari
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP,
a rights advocacy group, has reacted to the arrest of sitting court
judges by the DSS.
The group has written President Muhammadu Buhari, demanding the
immediate and unconditional release of Nigerian judges arrested in the
midnight of Saturday by operatives of the Department of State Services.
According to The Punch, the group, which also wrote the United
Nations on the case, threatened to take legal action, both locally and
internationally, against the President, should the arrested judges not
be immediately freed.
SERAP said, in a statement on Sunday by its Executive Director,
Adetokunbo Mumuni, that while it fully supported Buhari’s
anti-corruption war, it viewed the clapdown on judges as a chilling “blow on the independence of the judiciary and a dangerous precedent that should not be allowed to stand.”
The group feared that if the development was allowed to stand or
continue, it would make judges susceptible to pressure from the
executive and spell the final collapse of judiciary’s independence.
Apart from asking the President to order the immediate release of
the judges, SERAP also demanded a probe of the DSS over the development
and punishment for everyone found culpable.
SERAP said, “We are seriously concerned about the wave of
arrests, intimidation and harassment of judges across the country by the
DSS. While we fully support the government’s efforts to eradicate
judicial corruption, we cannot accept anti-corruption strategies and
methods which patently offend the rule of law and undermine the
authority, integrity, sanctity and independence of the judiciary.
“SERAP believes that strategies and methods to sanction
suspected corrupt judges must never have an inhibiting or chilling
effect on the authority, sanctity, integrity and independence of the
judiciary.
“The uncertainty of the processes and grounds on which
suspected corrupt judges can be sanctioned would affect the capacity of
all judges to act independently, and the public confidence in the
judiciary.
“Judges, like other constitutional functionaries, must face the
law if they depart from or deceive the law, such as when they are
suspected of engaging in corruption. But what the DSS has done is a blow
to the independence of judiciary, and a dangerous precedent that should
not be allowed to stand.
“The value of the principle of judicial independence is that it
protects judges from arbitrary sanctions by the government. The way
this country dispenses justice and treats its judges will show the moral
and legal character to which it can pretend.”
SERAP noted that in the world over, the body that sanctions erring judges is usually independent of the government.
It stressed that without a judiciary that is independent, the concept of rule of law would become a mockery.
“Judicial accountability must respect the fundamental
principles of the independence of the judiciary and the separation of
powers, and its proceedings must be in line with constitutional and
international standards of due process and fair trial. Indeed,
international standards require that the bodies responsible for
sanctioning corrupt judges should be independent from the government,
and that any legal sanction against suspected corrupt judges must be
determined in accordance with well-established procedures that guarantee
the rights of judges to a fair and transparent trial, and to an
independent review,” SERAP said.
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