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The Justice Observatory Journal A publication of Access to Justice Access to Justice About Access to Justice (A2Justice) Access to Justice (A2Justice) sets out to defend rights of equal and non-discriminatory access to institutions of justice, expand access to impartial justice, strengthen integrity in the administration of justice and support legal struggles for human freedom and dignity. Operating under three mutually reinforcing programmes, the Judicial Integrity and Independence Programme (JIIP), the Legal Access Programme (LAP) and the Legal Resources Programme (LRP), all of A2Justice work addresses critical problems in justice administration and human rights, serve important public needs and target important achievements in democratic reform. Access to Justice is a recipient of the 2009 MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions and also the recipient of the first-ever Nigerian Bar Association Gani Fawehinmi Award (2010) for the defence of human rights and social justice Access to Justice welcomes public participation in, and support for its work. To find ways of getting involved, please write to The Executive Director, at the address or email below. Access to Justice 9E Badagry Road, Off Marine Road, P.O. Box 1868, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria. Phone: +234 1 4546877 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.accesstojustice-ng.org IBSN: 978-067-724-0 Copyright (c) Access to Justice (2016) ii Acknowledgment Access to Justice is grateful to the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) for its support towards the publication of this Journal. iii iv Table of Contents About Access to Justice ii Acknowledgment iii Editorial 1 Take No Prisoners: EFCC Lifts the Lid on Judicial Corruption 3 The EFCC and Hon. Justice Mohammed Yunusa Who is Justice Mohammed Yunusa? Who is Justice Nganjiwa Hyeladzira Ajiya? The Corruption Allegations of the EFCC against Justice Nganjiwa Other Developments 10 Inundated with a Barrage of Petitions, Will the NJC Give Hon. Justice Innocent Umezulike Chief Judge of Enugu State the Boot? NJC Wields the Big Stick on Justice Lambo Akanbi; Now He's Out NJC Places Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia on a “Watch List” Access to Justice launches Report on the Code of Conduct Tribunal 15 v Editorial Corruption Allegations and Due Process for Judges: The War against Corruption should know no sacred cows A rejuvenated Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has charged two prominent lawyers to court for bribing or corrupting judges. The judges were not charged along! The EFCC's dilemma is not an easy one: if bribery is a crime that involves the giver and taker, why is the pursuit only after alleged givers alone and not the alleged takers? We understand how cautiously the EFCC wants to proceed in this context. While the named judges have not been charged for any offences the sensationalized media coverage of the allegations could as well have done as much damage to them as if they were actually brought to trial. The EFCC has, as is reported, made complaints against one of the Judges to the National Judicial Council (NJC), and if the Commission's complaints are substantiated, the most the NJC can do is to recommend the removal of the Judge from office. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo It may well be that this is the phase the EFCC abides time for, before taking any further steps against the implicated judges, that is, if it has any appetite for prosecuting Judges for corruption. In truth, the Commission has shown a longstanding reluctance to bring corrupt judges to trial but this is not limited to the EFCC. A precedent was nearly set a couple of years ago, when the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) tried to arraign a past Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State Justice Effiong Idiong after the NJC failed to take disciplinary action against him for allegedly facilitating the corruption of Akwa Ibom Election Petition Judges who were subsequently dismissed from office. That effort drew blank as the Chief Judge obtained a court injunction against his prosecution. On their part, Judges have come to acknowledge that they are, somehow, sacred cows in this respect, and, for some, this awareness may be bearing on the calculus of whether to risk bad behaviour. There is no denying the fact, however, that corruption amongst lawyers and judges or between them is a growing threat to the broader fight against corruption and needs to be addressed urgently too. The judiciary has often been accused of obstructing the war against corruption, particularly with respect to inhibiting the progress of prosecutions against those accused of corruption and delaying or frustrating the outcomes of those trials. Allegations that lawyers are hand in gloves with judges and cutting illicit deals to miscarry justice will foster the impression that this is, after all, the real albatross, the elephant in the room that is 1 bedevilling our fight against graft, a claim the judiciary and its advocates have for long resisted. But everyone seems to agree that we need to clear the deck of every stumbling block in order to fight the monster of corruption. Recently, President Buhari said the judiciary was his major headache in the war against corruption; tough as that statement was to digest for the legal profession, it was actually a mild assertion given what others have hitherto said. President Olusegun Obasanjo did not mince words when he said to Judges, in 2012 during his presidency: “…the judiciary has been riddled by corruption, which has affected other sectors of the country. And if the judiciary becomes corrupt, where is the hope for the nation? Justice has become the highest bidder takes all. That is what we have now.” There may be a lot that may be said for exercising the utmost restraint when considering prosecutions against judges for corruption because so much is at stake. The lives and careers of those judges may be completely and, probably unfairly upended or damaged if they are found not guilty of allegations against them and it is not likely that they can continue to function as judges after ordeals like that. Furthermore, there is also a public interest consideration: since it is not likely they would be able to continue judicial duties whilst being prosecuted, there will be questions as to what to do with the cases in their courts. Etc etc. There has been quite a bit of discussion lately about how to deal with corruption in the Judiciary. It seems clear to us that, difficult as it may be, unless we begin to apply the same law, and “ration justice” for corruption in a fairer, equal way, we cannot make much progress with defeating the monster. As the late American Jurist Learned Hand once said, “If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice”. This applies here too. No judge, as far as we know, has been prosecuted for corruption. Not because there have been no established cases of corruption against them; not because of the lack of evidence; not because of any immunity inherent in the office of a judge against crimes of corruption. It's only because we have not raised our game to that level. No matter how novel the idea may sound, we must now pluck up courage to plow through new approaches that can help remove the obstacles in the way of stamping out corruption. Where there are credible and investigated allegations against Judges, (and there is need to ensure that the suspicions reach the thresholds where a decision to go to trial would be a thoroughly responsible one), anti-corruption agencies should apply the law equally to Judges, offering them the due process that they deserve. This can be done with or without the “endorsement” of the NJC. Happily this is consistent with what the new Attorney General Abubakar Malami, (SAN) has said he wants to do. In the war against corruption, there ought to be no sacred cows! 2 TAKE NO PRISONERS: EFCC LIFTS THE LID ON JUDICIAL CORRUPTION hat started out as a relatively minor face-off between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and a prominent lawyer, Ricky Tarfa (SAN) is snowballing into a catastrophe for some lawyers and Judges in Nigeria. Heads may roll, it appears, if Wwhat has gone public like a wildfire is substantiated down the line as true. It all started from an unlikely event: a senior pr ominent lawyer had given refuge to his client, a Beninnoise businessman, Granhoue Sourou Nazaire standing trial for forgery and fraud, in his car in order to avoid further EFCC re-arrest. Ricky Tarfa (SAN) is defending several persons accused by the EFCC of corruption. The EFCC is irritated that corruption trials are dragging interminably in the courts and has even lost some of the few cases that have finally been determined. Both parties understand the strategies of the other. The EFCC will use strong arm tactics to arrest, re-arrest and re-arrest again if need be where the court has granted bail to a person the agency does not want to be released. Ibrahim Magu, EFCC Chairman With a new government and a new EFCC Chair, the Commission wants to overhaul its perception and fire on all cylinders to show that it is no longer business as usual. Ricky Tarfa (SAN) thought he could out- manoeuvre the prowling EFCC officers and shield his clients from their reach. This was precisely a red flag to a bull as far as the agency's reaction would go. When the EFCC discovered this, the agency immediately arrested Ricky Tarfa and placed him in detention.