Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has accused senior lawyers of
“knowing all corrupt judges and court officials,” insisting that, “the
information is freely circulated among lawyers. Members of the public
also know judges who collect money either directly or through lawyers or
court clerks.”
Falana in a paper titled “Access To Justice: Socio-Cultural, Economic
And Geographical Limitations Thereto-A Critique” and delivered on
Wednesday at an event by the Ondo State Judiciary, said:
of judicial corruption, it has the capacity to do so. With 120 branches
spread across the country, the NBA can police judges, lawyers and court
officials with a view to stamping out corrupt practices.”
Falana also said that, “When the Ghana Bar Association was paying lip
service to corruption, a journalist decided to video record judges who
were negotiating and collecting bribes. At the end of the recording he
exposed, named and shamed the indicted judges. They were promptly
investigated by the Ghana Judicial Council and dismissed from the
bench.”
adopting any concrete measures to stop it, the security and anti-graft
agencies recently seized the initiative and arrested judges in the dead
of the night to the eternal embarrassment of the legal profession.
Eternal embarrassment
To prevent any further embarrassment of our judges, the NBA and NJC
ought to adopt an inbuilt mechanism for exterminating the menace of
corruption from the bar and bench.”
Falana said, “Although the right of every person to access justice in
Nigeria is constitutionally guaranteed, the quality of justice
obtainable is determined by their economic wherewithal under the
prevailing peripheral capitalist system. Notwithstanding the denial of
access to justice by socioeconomic factors the human rights community
has ensured the relaxation of locus standi in public interest litigation
and its complete abolition in the enforcement of human rights.”
Falana’s paper read in part:
“The Legal Aid Act and the National Human Rights Commission Act have
also been amended to compel the government to make provision for
rendering free legal services to indigent citizens involved in civil and
criminal litigation. The Administration of Criminal Justice Act has
humanized the criminal justice system by obviating delay in criminal
trials. It is however regrettable to note that our judges and lawyers
have refused to take advantage of the relevant adjectival and procedural
laws to prevent the denial of access to justice to disadvantaged and
vulnerable people in the society.
“We need judges who are prepared to insist that their hands cannot be
tied by unjust laws to do injustice even if the heavens would fall. It
is not sufficient for our judges to quote Lord Denning with relish. Our
judges must emulate him by ensuring that the gates of our courts are
flung open to citizens with genuine grievances. Like Justice Krishner
Iyer of India our judges must actualize the socioeconomic rights
enshrined in Chapter 2 of the Constitution and not leave them inchoate
and barren.
“Like Justice Akinola Aguda our judges must always realise that the law
can be used to promote social justice in a manner that the commonwealth
is not concentrated in the hands of a few while majority of the people
wallow in abject poverty. And like Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN who
successfully defeated the anachronistic doctrine of locus standi our
lawyers should challenge other obnoxious laws and legal principles which
have denied the Nigerian people access to justice.
“To check the growing culture of executive lawlessness and official
impunity in the country public interest litigation ought to be
encouraged and promoted. To this effect the anachronistic doctrine of
locus standi should be abolished. The doctrine of locus standi should be
relaxed in public interest cases as laid down by the Supreme Court in
Fawehinmi v Akilu. In order to accelerate the determination of
corruption cases in our courts the Buhari administration decided to
sponsor an Executive Bill for the establishment of a special court for
the trial of corruption cases. Although the bill was submitted to the
national assembly over a year ago the federal legislators have not
deemed it fit to pass the crucial bill into law for reasons best known
to them. Hence corruption cases have been subjected to inordinate delays
in our courts which are congested with many other cases.
“The Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Honourable Justice Walter Onnoghen,
has intervened in a decisive manner by issuing a Directive to all heads
of courts in Nigeria to create special juficial divisions for the
exclusive trial of corruption cases. A monitoring committee headed by
Justice Ayo Salami, retired President of the Court of Appeal has been
constituted to monitor the performance of the judges assigned to handle
corruption cases.
“No doubt, the timely intervention of the Chief Justice will go a long
way to speed up the trial of corruption cases in all out courts. To make
a success of the directive it is suggested that the Chief Judges of the
States and the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal be directed to
issue Practice Directions similar to the Federal High Court Practice
Directions for the trial of corruption cases. However, to ensure the
success of the progressive Directive the Chief Justice should ensure
that the Supreme Court (Criminal Appeals) Practice Directions; Court of
Appeal (Criminal Appeals) Practice Directions and Federal High Court
Practice Directions issued in 2013 by the Heads of the respective courts
are fully complied with.
“The said Practices Directions which are designed to give priority to
the trial and appeals arising from cases of corruption, money
laundering, rape and kidnapping have not been put to use in any of the
courts. Now is the time to apply them including the provision on the
service of processes on parties by electronic mail addresses, facsimile
number and GSM Telephone number or any other available mode of
communication. In the light of recent development in the global fight
against corruption the Chief Justice may wish to direct the heads of
courts to amend the relevant practice directions.
“Having regard to the fact that some of the corruption cases were filed
about 17 years ago the creation of the special judicial divisions of our
courts to deal with corruption cases will enable the federal government
to have access to justice. It was not only the federal government that
was denied access to justice. All the victims of the grand corruption
perpetrated by the indicted public officers were denied access to
justice. But with religious application of the provisions of the
Administration of Criminal Justice Act and the relevant practice
directions never again will a group of corrupt politically exposed
persons and their lawyers block access to justice and hold the country
to ransom.”
