Afrigather Over 250 constitutional and human rights attorneys below the aegis of the Judicial Integrity Legal professionals have known as on the Nationwide Judicial Council to direct courts in Nigeria to ignore circumstances introduced earlier than them by the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee.
As a part of the resolutions reached by the attorneys on the finish of their annual convention, with the theme: “Democracy and the Rule of Regulation,” held in Abuja between March 20 and 21, 202, the attorneys mentioned it might solely be acceptable for Nigerian courts to entertain EFCC circumstances when the fee’s Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, should have purged himself of contempt by obeying subsisting courtroom orders binding on him.
The group’s newly elected President, Godwin Idoko, in a communiqué on Tuesday, mentioned the physique didn’t contemplate Bawa match to proceed presiding over the affairs of a legislation enforcement company, particularly one constitutionally set as much as battle corruption
Idoko said within the communiqué that the physique famous {that a} nation that had no regard for courtroom selections was heading in the direction of anarchy.
Idoko mentioned, “We’re stating {that a} nation that has no regard for the choices of its courtroom is heading towards anarchy. Therefore, we name on the Nationwide Judicial Council to direct courts within the nation to henceforth not entertain any circumstances introduced earlier than it by any company of the federal government that disobeys courtroom orders, particularly EFCC, till its Chairman, Mr AbdulRasheed Bawa, has purged himself by obeying all subsisting courtroom orders binding on him.
“As an official whose conviction was made by an order of a courtroom or courts of competent jurisdiction, we don’t contemplate him match to proceed presiding over the affairs of a legislation enforcement company, particularly one constitutionally set as much as battle corruption. You can’t use the corrupting affect of energy to implement anti-corruption legal guidelines.
“We contemplate it a ridiculous aberration {that a} convict could be in command of getting others convicted when he ought to be serving time for contempt of courtroom and when there was no superior judgment in opposition to the conviction.”
Idoko within the communiqué additionally suggested politicians in opposition to sponsoring crises throughout the nation to ventilate grievances, saying that sponsoring post-election crises would negate the supremacy clause of the nation’s structure as said in Part 1(2) of the 1999 Structure.
Moreover, the attorneys noticed that the timing of the convention was of nice significance, contemplating the truth that the nation was nonetheless battling with the fallout of the assorted elections, including that many salient points concerning the place of the rule of legislation in Nigeria’s “struggling democracy” had been thrown up.
The communiqué said, “Recall that it took the direct intervention of (the) President (Main Common)Muhammadu Buhari (retd) for the Governor of the Central Financial institution of Nigeria to obey a lawful judgment of the Supreme Courtroom, the best courtroom within the land, on the naira redesign coverage of the CBN. This was after the flagrant disobedience to the preliminary judgment of the identical Supreme Courtroom earlier than the presidential elections have been held.
“Even now, our assembly agreed that the Federal Authorities has not absolutely complied with the judgment with regard to different points of the coverage, which has continued to place Nigerians by means of untold hardship.
“Our over 250 members have due to this fact urged President Muhammadu Buhari to, throughout the restricted time left within the lifetime of his administration, urgently handle the harmful tradition of disobedience to the rule of legislation, assault on our judiciary and finally guarantee acceptable sanctions for the violators of the dictates of our structure.’’
About 25 attorneys, representing the six geopolitical zones of the nation, collectively introduced the communiqué on behalf of the over 250 attorneys in JILAW.
