President Muhammadu Buhari, the Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, and other stakeholders, on
Monday jointly spoke against corruption and identified the roles of the
judiciary and other institutions in the fight against the scourge in the
country.
Against this background, the CJN said
the judiciary would no longer dismiss cases of corruption against high-
profile persons without trial.
The CJN said the judiciary had put a
stop to giving verdicts that exonerated high-profile citizens accused of
corruption without undergoing trial.
Justice Mohammed said this amid calls by
President Buhari and other stakeholders, on the judiciary to join the
Federal Government’s efforts to rid the country of corruption.
The President called on the judiciary to
put its house in order, tackle judicial corruption, be impartial and
politically-neutral, remove causes of delays in adjudication of cases
and stop tolerating the dilatory tactics of defence lawyers that
prolonged high- profile corruption cases.
The President, the CJN and others
including the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, the Chairman, Presidential Advisory
Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), among others spoke
at the opening ceremony of an ‘International Workshop on the Judiciary
and Fight against Corruption.’
The two-day event was jointly-organised
by the National Judicial Institute and the Sagay-led PACAC and it was
with the theme, ‘The Roles of Judges in the Fight Against Corruption:
Sagay, who had earlier spoken at the
event, had identified four reasons for the “unconcluded-trial syndrome”
that had kept the corruption cases against about 15 ex-governors in
court since 2007 to include, “the reluctance or failure of the judiciary
to take control of their own courts and to exercise their powers firmly
and decisively.”
But the CJN in a veiled response to
Sagay, while delivering his speech, said one of the reasons the cases
against the politically-exposed persons had remained in the court’s
dockets was because of lack of will by government to get them
prosecuted.
He said, “I must emphasise that the fact
that these cases still remain on our case list was because of lack of
will on the part of government to have these cases prosecuted.
“Also, as corresponding action from the
judiciary, we are determined not to strike out or dismiss the cases or
discharge and acquit accused persons without trial.
“That is why these cases remain on the
list because of virile determination to have them prosecuted when the
will to do so arises such as now.”
The CJN said since 2013, various levels
of court in the country had “initiated and introduced Practice
Directions on Kidnapping, Corruption and other Serious Offences, that
provides framework for the fast-tracking of major crimes and corruption
cases.”
He added, “The issue of undue delay by
technicality, which hitherto plagued the criminal justice system, has
also been addressed by the enactment of the Administration of Criminal
Justice Act, 2015.”
He urged “all parties to proceedings to
avail themselves of the innovations introduced by the Act in order to
ensure that delay becomes obsolete in our courts.”
He assured Nigerians that the judiciary
would continue to play its role in the fight against corruption, adding
that due punishment would be meted out to anyone found guilty.
Reiterating the role of diligent
investigation in the successful prosecution of corruption cases, the CJN
commended the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, Ibrahim Magu, in that regard.
President Buhari said his
administration made the war against corruption one of its priorities in
order to restore the economy and build a new Nigeria.