The
NJC is made up a committee headed by the CJN as chairman while the second most
senior judge at the Supreme Court, in this case, Walter Onnoghen is deputy
chair, others includes the President of the Court of Appeal, five chief judges
of state high courts chosen by the CJN, five legal practitioners and the Chief
Judge of the Federal High Court.
The
current composition of the NJC also presents a problem, according to an EFCC
official some members of the NJC are themselves corrupt and have been shown to
be heavily involved in corruption. They pointed to immediate past chairman of
the Nigeria Bar Association, Austin Alegeh who has petitions pending at the
EFCC accusing him of embezzlement of NBA funds.
Also,
another former President of the NBA, Joseph Daudu who chairs the Legal Practitioners
Disciplinary Committee has a case against him at EFCC over embezzlement of
settlement fees paid to Nigeria by Halliburton.
Ricky
Tarfa, a senior lawyer, involved a maze of corrupt activities involving several
judges is also a member of Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, a body
saddled with choosing senior lawyers known as “Senior Advocate of Nigeria.” Mr.
Tarfa he has retained his position despite being charged with bribery and
corruption.
More
troubling for law enforcement agents is the attitude of the outgoing CJN who
they accused of shielding a judge of the Court of Appeal, Justice Uwani
Abba-Aji, who reportedly received N8 million from Mr. Tarfa. Despite her
indictment, the CJN has recommended her for elevation to the Supreme Court.
A former CJN, Justice
Katsina-Alu had also prevented Justice Umaru Eri of the National Judicial
Institute in 2011 from honoring an invitation by the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission over allegations that N6
billion went missing at his agency. Eri remained as the chairman of the Legal
Practitioners Disciplinary Committee until his retirement.
One
of the cases involving now-retired Justice Gladys Olotu of the Federal High
Court in the Abuja Division in 2014 was also cited as the reason the NJC has
become a useless body; the judge was found by the EFCC to possess over N2
billion in her bank accounts. As soon as the EFCC summoned her to appear she
rushed to the court of Justice Adeniyi Ademola to obtain an order to stop the
EFCC from acting on her case. She was later “compulsorily retired” by the NJC.
Meanwhile, Justice Ademola was one of the judges arrested over the weekend with
$500,000 found in his bedroom.
Soon
after seven judges including two Supreme Court justices were arrested in
overnight raids carried out by the DSS, the CJN met with President Muhammadu
Buhari to ask for their release.
Sources
at the Presidency said while President Buhari assured him that the raids were
not targeted at the judiciary but corrupt judges the CJN showed the president
of some persons close to him who had funneled monies to judges to influence
them in recent election cases.
The
President then reluctantly asked the DSS to release all the arrested judges on
Sunday pending their arraignment in court.
The
NJC is expected to meet today to discuss the recent clampdown on corrupt
judges. The DSS has reportedly sent a detailed report of its investigations
against the arrested judges and eight others under investigation to the NJC to
aid their deliberations and decisions, however, a source knowledgeable about
today's meeting said the NJC was to fight back strongly against the DSS not to
ratify its actions against corrupt judges.
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