Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed yesterday defended the recent arrest of judges by officials of the Department of State Services, DSS, saying that in the process of fighting corruption, government would step on very sensitive toes.
DSS, had last weekend, stormed the houses of some judges, arrested them and recovered huge sum of money in different denominations.
The affected judges were on Monday given bail on self recognition by DSS.
National Judicial Council, NJC, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and some human right associations have been expressing divergent views over the incident.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents while briefing on the meeting of Federal Executive Council, FEC, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, the minister said all proper procedures were complied with before the arrest, adding that it was not meant to humiliate the judiciary.
According to him, the present government believed in the principle of separation of power and has a lot of respect for the judiciary, stressing that Buhari’s cabinet has the highest number of lawyers as ministers.
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| Lai Mohammed |
Mohammed said: “I think the Federal Government is being very careful with handling of this particular issue, I want to state clearly that this government believes very much in separation of powers, this government has a lot of respect for the judiciary and for obvious reasons, not just because the constitution says so but I think probably this is one cabinet that has the highest number of lawyers as ministers.
“As at the last count about 11 or 12 council members are lawyers and we have female lawyers also in cabinet.
“Until death robbed us of late Ocholi, we had five SANs in our cabinet and I think this is unique. Therefore, you can understand the kind of respect we have for the judiciary.
“What the government is concerned and passionate about is to fight corruption. In the process of fighting corruption it’s not unusual that you step on some very sensitive toes but the question to ask and I think these has been adequately answered by the Attorney General is that let’s remove emotion from facts.”
He maintained that, in the fight against corruption, the Federal Government would be stepping on toes of personalities including judges, ministers among others.
He explained that judges can be arrested since they have no immunity, saying that the search warrants on them were also properly executed.
Mohammed said: “One, do judges have immunity? The answer is no. Can judges be arrested? The answer is yes.
“Have judges that are serving been arrested in Nigeria? The answer is yes. Justice Okoli had been arrested and tried.
“Now, the next question to ask is: what is the proper procedure for arresting anybody, including judge? There must be proper executing search warrant. Was such presented? The answer again is yes.
“People have tried to muddle the facts about when do you search the person’s house, the truth of the matter is that under the new criminal justice law, you can search anybody, anywhere, anytime.”
The minister explained that NJC was not the only authority that can look into complaints against judges or discipline them.
According to him, there was a difference between when a judge is accused of professional misconduct and the present situation which borders on corruption.
He explained that it was unfortunate that people brought in issues that are completely irrelevant to the matter, including saying that the purpose of the arrest was because the President wants somebody from one part of the country to be the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
“Some people are saying oh, the reason why they went to some particular judges’ house is because the President wants somebody from one part of the country to be Chief Justice of Nigeria. I think that is preposterous.
“I want to assure you that this government has no intention to humiliate the judiciary and for those who are talking about separation of power, I think you are stretching it too far.
“I and members of the Executive, I can be invited by any arm of the government and I will go. So I think we should situate this thing in the right perspective,” he said.
Mohammed narrated how 22 out of 32 judges in Ghana, who were caught on tape by an investigative journalist, asking for bribe, were dismissed in 2015.
He, therefore, stated that there was nothing wrong in stepping on judges’ toes in the fight against corruption.
“You were all witnesses in 2015 in Ghana here; 32 judges were caught on tape by journalists asking for bribe, 22 of them were dismissed in one day.
“Yes it’s true that what is happening today has probably never happened at this level before, but frankly speaking and with all due respect, we do not intend to humiliate any judge, we have no intention to humiliate the judiciary, but believe me, what we have done we have done within the ambits of the law,” he added.
Also at the briefing, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola said FEC approved N700m for the completion of abandoned federal secretariats in Anambra, Bayelsa, Gombe, Nasarawa, Osun and Zamfara states.
According to him, the funds for the completion of the secretariat projects, which were abandoned since 2012, were captured in the 2016 budget.
The minister said at the completion of the projects, the secretariats would provide office spaces to staff of the Federal Government posted to those states.
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