Gen. Ikponmwen: Supreme Council should be dissolved Court, National Judicial
New Telegraph: Politics
New Telegraph: Politics
7 hours ago
Brigadier-General Idada Don Ikponmwen (rtd) is a former Provost Marshal of the Nigeria Army where he once served as Director, Legal Services. He was also a delegate to the 2014 National Conference and served as a member of Committee on National Security. In this interview with ONWUKA NZESHI, he speaks on the raging controversy over the recent arrest of some judges by the Department of State Services (DSS) and warns that government might be compelled to declare a state of emergency on the judiciary
The National Judicial Council (NJC) has said that it will not suspend the judges that were arrested by the Department of State Services. Before now, the NBA said that they were against the manner security operatives arrested these judges and threatened to boycott the courts. What do you make of these moves from the bar and bench?
It’s absurd for these respected bodies to take these positions on this matter and that was why I came out that time to say that the bar and the bench should not ground the judicial system in Nigeria because there was no need for it. You do not support the wrong cause because you want to be seen to be supporting the judiciary. You support the judiciary when you work for its independence. You don’t support the judiciary when you are saying that when judges commit crimes, only they will be the ones to investigate it.
The power of investigation in this country is with the executive and it rests on the police, DSS and other law enforcement agencies depending on the issue. I believe that the President has the right to use any of the security agencies that he wants to investigate any particular issue and in this case, he chose to use the DSS. I do not see anything wrong with it because the DSS is empowered to investigate anything assigned to it by the President.
I believe that the bar has soft pedalled a bit when it later said that the judges should be suspended pending the outcome of the investigations. Similarly, the body of SANs appears to have favoured this position which is different from their earlier stance.
Now talking about the issue of judges being suspended, can you imagine the NJC saying that they have not received any formal petition in a matter that has gone viral globally? This is even after the NJC has said that judges are now barred from accepting all manner of gifts.
This is not new anyway, but they are saying so in the evolving situation. But if they can say so, why can’t they see the need for judges undergoing criminal investigation to step aside instead of wearing robes and going to court to fool themselves by presiding over cases some of which are not as grave as the one they are facing themselves? I think the NJC needs to wake up to its responsibilities. They need to show us that they are ready for a change.
The rot of the past has been too much and I think that if they do not respond positively to the ongoing situation, where allegations have been made linking most of the members of the Supreme Court, we will have no option but to call on the President to declare a state of emergency on the judiciary.
When you say you want a state of emergency declared on the judiciary, what do you mean? You want the President to sack all the judges of the Supreme Court?
Yes. Sack all of them and bring in new ones by extra- ordinary powers. Dissolve the NJC which is headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria. Would he (CJN) say he doesn’t know all that has been going on? There are too many things that have happened in the past. Many Nigerians know that the judiciary has not been well administered. Most importantly, I want to say that the power of the NJC to exercise disciplinary control over judges and senior judicial staff is only a provision made for administrative convenience.
It does not and was not intended to remove the very sacrosanct doctrine of separation of powers which gives administration and execution of the country’s laws to the executive arm of government which includes the Police and other law enforcement agencies. It does not give the NJC the power to take over criminal investigation in the land.
In Nigeria, our Supreme Court has said that no executive body or institution, be it the university, Army or Police can take over the role of investigating and trying criminal offences which belongs to the regular courts. No administrative or legislative body can take it up and as far as I know, the. NJC is an administrative body.
We cannot be talking about upholding the doctrine of separation of powers and understanding it to mean that the judges, even when they commit offence, can be amenable to investigation by the appropriate arm of government. It will be heretic.
Since the first seven judges were arrested, we have seen more judges being arrested and interrogated by security operatives. Did you envisage that corruption was that pervasive in the judiciary before these arrests?
Do you want my own opinion from my own personal experience? Do you want my view as a senior member of this society, a lawyer, and as a public affairs analyst? I will say, yes. There has been too much decay in the judiciary. But that is not to say that all judges are bad and corrupt.
There are good judges and I know quite a number of them. When we say, deal with corrupt judges, we are not saying that the judiciary as an institution should be consigned to the trash can.
We are just saying, let the right thing be done and I think that the right thing to do to enhance the independence of the judiciary is to ensure that the NJC is organised and treated the way that is expected in the law. They must be above board because they are the last hope of the common man in the society.
They must ensure that they do not involve themselves in crimes people will frown at when the ordinary man commits them. I would say that the disciplinary control vested in the NJC should apply only to professional misconduct that does not amount to crime.
What do you make of the outcry about the modus operandi and time of the arrest of these judges?
There is no deal there at all. No deal! If there is no argument that it is the police and other law enforcement agents that have powers to investigate crimes and if there is no limitation as to time in which an arrest must be made, then there is nothing that deserves agitation from our people about how and when a suspect was arrested.
The police can arrest at anytime; they can search anybody, anywhere and at any time. If the suspect refuses to open his door, you can pull it down. Are you going to beg him to allow you access to a place that he is keeping stolen money or other exhibits? What are we talking about?
Have you read the letters and testimonies of some of these judges in which they alleged that they were targeted by the DSS for refusing to cooperate with some leaders of the ruling party on some election