Human rights group blows hot on corrupt judges

By Lanre Adesanya

The Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Coalition group has thrown its weight behind President Mohammad Buhari led anti graft war, which is hellbent on sanitizing the judiciary,   sounding a note of warning to all corrupt judges and collaborators that Nigerians need clean bench to drive Democratic reforms.

The group led by its convener, Abiona Desmond, staged a peaceful protest in front of the Lagos High Court in Alausa, stressing the need for full purge of the Judiciary as many heinous crimes had been perpetrated in land, while the justice dispensing body look the other way having been allegedly compromised.

They maintained that the seven judges who were recently arrested by the DSS need be properly investigated and if found culpable, dealt with appropriately to serve as deterrence for other likely erring judges who subvert the course of justice.

The group stated that, “there must be no place for corrupt judges in this country. We need a clean bench to drive democratic reforms.

“We mourn not just because these judicial officers have been fooling us. We mourn because they were still able to get gullible citizens that are fighting for them by condemning the sequence of events and the process of their arrests.

Abiona raised eyebrow on why some Nigerians still has the temerity to criticize an arrest executed with a valid warrant. Challenging those judges indicted or arrested to dare come to equity with clean hands.

” Arrest of judges or anyone found to have been corrupt is not witch-hunt,it is not politics and definitely it is not clamping down on freedom”. Abiona stated.

They also assert that, ” corrupt judges are the high priests that pronounce the final blessing on stolen funds for treasury looters to go enjoy their spoils in peace and comfort. It is they who grant perpetual orders that restraint thieves from being arrested to answer for their crimes.

The group demanded that all judges indicted or arrested for corruption by DSS tender their resignation.

Cases and petition handled by NJC for which penalties were considered not punitive enough should be revisited with a view to dragging them before a law court, warning judges handling the trial of these arrested men that Nigerians would be watching closely and this is no time to play fraternal games.