Says Govt has right to search anybody,
anywhere, anytimeFEC okays N700 million for
Federal secretariats in six statesThe Minister of
Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammedon
Wednesdaysaid there was nothing wrong in
stepping on judges’ toes in the fight against
corruption.
It would be recalled that the Department of
State Services (DSS) had last weekendstormed
the houses of some judges, arrested them and
recovered the huge sum of money in different
denominations.
But briefing State House correspondentsat the
end of Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting
presided by President Mohammadu Buhari,
Mohammed said that there was nothing wrong
with the method adopted by the DSS.
Mohammed was accompanied by the Ministers
of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde
Fashola and Minister of Statefor Aviation, Hadi
Sirika.
While stressing that governors who
haveimmunity are still open to investigation, he
said that judges don’t even have immunity.
He said: “What the government is concerned and
passionate about is to fight corruption. In the
process of fighting corruption, it is not unusual
that you step on some very sensitive toes butthe
question to ask and I think these hasbeen
adequately answered by the Attorney General is
that let’s remove emotion from facts.“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
judges? There must be properly executing of the
search warrant. Was such presented? The
answer again is yes. People have tried tomuddle
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.“Again they have
tried to muddle issues by trying to say that the
NJC is the only authority that can attend
complain and discipline, the answer once again
is no,” he added.He pointed out that there is a
difference between what is happening to the
judges now and when a judge is accused of
professional misconduct.
“If you suspect anybody including Governors
who have immunity they are still subject to
investigations.” He saidThe government, he said,
has the highest respect for the judiciary and
does not intend to ridicule the judiciary.“We are
not painting the whole of the judges with the
same brush but we also have a duty to fight
corruption at whatever level and in doing so, we
will doso within the ambit of the law.” He
saidThe Minister expressed displeasure that
some people have started raising issues that are
completely irrelevant to the matter.
He said: “Some people are saying oh, thereason
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 whoare
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
situatethis thing in the right perspective.” He
addedHe recalled when 22 out of 32 judges in
Ghana, who were caught on tape by journalists
asking for a bribe, were dismissed in 2015.
He added: “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.“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
muchin separation of powers, this
governmenthas 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
eleven or twelve council members are lawyers
and we have female lawyers also in the 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.
”He also pointed out that the President himself,
who sought to be President four times and had
it thwarted three times, took his case to court
on the three occasions.
“He took his case to the judiciary, so I can say
clearly that this administration has a lot of
respect for the judiciary and Ithink I stand by
what Mallam Garba Shehu said that please do
not confuse the fight against corruption as a
fight against judiciary,” he addedFashola
disclosed that the FEC approvedN700 million for
the completion of abandoned Federal
secretariats in Anambra, Bayelsa, Gombe,
Nasarawa, Osun and Zamfara states.
According to him, the fund for the completion of
the secretariat projects, which were abandoned
since 2012, werecaptured in the 2016 budget.He
said when completed, the projects would provide
office accommodation to Federal Government
staff deployed to the affected states.
“They are at various stages of completion.
There have been changes in cost as a result of
project designs, amendment, cases where
original location and contract are changed and
they have to be redesigned in such structure,’’
he saidHe said that the second memo
approvedby FEC from the ministry has to do with
ongoing projects for the construction of the
abandoned 10 megawatts Wind Farmpower
project in Katsina state.According to him, the
wind farm project is part of government’s
strategic plan for renewable energy.
He added that the project was a major
component of the government’s road map
towards achieving incremental power in the
country.
Fashola noted that the contract cost of the
power project escalated following the kidnapping
of the contractor, who after being rescued
abandoned the project.Sirika said that the
council approved an outline Business case for
Industrial Port Development in Badagry, Lagos
State.
According to him, the Council also approved the
relocation of flight training simulator from Lagos
to Nigerian Collegeof Aviation Technology
(NCAT), Zaria in Kaduna state, for the training of
pilots and engineers. morei

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