My colleague Fidel Albert has this to say. Enjoy

Sometimes it is quite impossible to describe the disgust you feel in having to respond to absurd comments on your facebook wall. You see, this evening i posted my unalloyed support for the DSS in raiding houses of Judges and finding what i hear is evidence of corruption. Some people have called me names because of my position, but some of their reasons are downright heartbreaking, because these are people whom you expect to know better.

Pompey Esezobor wondered why i would hold this sort of opinion "in this time and age." But he forgot to tell me what "time and age" we are in for my opinion on this issue to be so inappropriate. Chinedu Anene was courageous enough to call my opinion "scandalous." Now, I readily forgive Chinedu Anene because he is a young lawyer. I can live with his insolent comment, without engaging him, for the simple reason that he is not worth my time. When he grows a bit older in the profession and understands the law better, I guarantee i'll find time to sit with him to remonstrate fine points of law. But not today.

To the many others who commented, please be assured that I respect your views. But here is my answer:

Judges are not immune from arrest or prosecution for corruption. Section 36 of the Constitution categorically states that any person may be arrested "on reasonable suspicion of having committed a criminal offence" Judges were not made an exception. In the wisdom of drafters of the Constitution, only the President, Vice-President, Governors and Deputy-Governors enjoy immunity from prosecution. Judges do have some sort of immunity though. But it is immunity from civil law suits by litigants for anything done in an official capacity by the Judges. But I'm sure nobody can argue that corruption is one of the official acts of a Judge. You may want to see the House of Lords reasoning in Re: Pinochet on how you lose your immunity once your act cannot be construed as an official act.So please, Judges, like everybody else, have no immunity from prosecution for corruption and certainly CAN BE ARRESTED.

I have heard arguments that they should have been referred to the NJC. This is quite a stupid argument to make, considering that the NJC is just an administrative disciplinary organ of the Judiciary and has no prosecutorial powers for crimes. This is far beyond the NJC. Yes, the NJC can recommend the dismissal of the Judges but that certainly does not foreclose their prosecution.Someone even talked about the judiciary being an arm of government and should not be interfered with by the executive. How bland an argument!! I wish they had referred to the law they were relying on to make this argument. Anyways, enforcement of the law will always lie with the executive, and the DSS is a law enforcement agency of the executive arm of government. Unless we are to argue that laws cannot be enforced against Judges, in which case i would just give up.

Someone said it was wrong to have raided the Judges' home at night without warrant. Who said this anyway? I think that person cannot be a lawyer. I'll tell you why. In the US, there is the legal principle called the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. This doctrine states that evidence obtained illegally cannot be admissible in Court against a suspect. So if you effect an arrest or obtain evidence illegally, no matter how damning that evidence is, it will not be admissible in the US Court and your suspect or accused will walk away a free man. The belief in US is that if the tree is bad, then the fruit, that is the evidence, must necessarily be bad too. Now when this doctrine was argued before the Nigerian courts, guess what the Judges decided? Yes, they decided that no matter how unlawful the process of obtaining evidence was, it would be admissible to convict in Nigeria. Consequently, no accused person can ever go free because he was arrested in the night instead of the day, or that he house was searched without warrant. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SUCCESSFULLY MAKE THAT ARGUMENT IN NIGERIAN COURTS!! It is how our Judges interpreted the law. The chicken has only come back to roost!! Are we to change the law the Judges upheld as right just because it's back to bite them?

Even then, let us not forget that in 2009, in this same USA, a sitting Governor of the State of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, was arrested in a dawn raid by FBI agents, quite like what the DSS did, on corruption charges. He was eventually impeached and convicted of the corruption charges. Well, that was America where issues of corruption are taken very seriously. We think differently in Nigeria.

I remember Ricky Tarfa's issue began like this. As a joke. Over 90 SANs went to put an appearance for Ricky Tarfa "in show of solidarity" on the first day of his arraignment, until the man himself filed an affidavit stating that he actually gave a Judge, before whom he had cases, money for 'burial." The next date of the case, the numbers of lawyers showing "solidarity" dwindled dramatically. Who would have thought that a SAN would do such things? But it happened. In Nigeria. It is happening everyday in fact. The sorts of bribery going on in the Judiciary is simply mind-boggling. Oh well, how do you suppose Ibori was set free by Nigerian Courts for the same crimes he was convicted of in UK courts? How do you suppose Peter Odili procured a perpetual injunction to free him from prosecution for corruption? Corruption in the Nigerian judiciary is as filthy as the Augean stables. Perfunctory cleaning will not do. Like Hercules, we will need to divert the flow of rivers through the judiciary to clean its mess. One thing I, Fidel Albert, will not do, i will never join the NBA in any solidarity strike or protests on this issue. I will never shield anybody accused of corruption. When you are persecuted for no cause, only then will i come to your defense. And my reason is simple. I am that lawyer who has no life outside of my work. I burn my candles on both ends to prepare for cases. Because of this, i don't have many friends or a buoyant social life. It then pains me when i have to lose a case, not because my argument was not correct, but because the Judge was bribed. It pains me even more when the Client thinks it was my fault.

This is why appellate Courts in Nigeria now hand down Judgments that inferior courts refuse to follow. Because they sometimes simply turn the law on its head on very clear and obvious points. Believe it or not, stare decisis is dead in Nigeria. Why are there so many conflicting decisions of the Court of Appeal? Where did inferior courts get the effrontery to dissent and depart from Supreme Court decisions?

I recently read a UK decision where someone had tried to argue that the same issues were already pending in Nigerian courts and so should not be re-litigated in the UK. It was so sad the way the British Judges smirked at the argument and immediately dismissed it and continued the proceedings in the UK. They did not for once think that pendency of the same issues in a Nigerian court was a serious constraint to their jurisdiction because, according to them, the Nigerian courts would take forever to resolve the issues and there was no assurance of the integrity of the system.So they proceeded with the case in UK anyway! That was a sad indictment. But, it is understandable for a UK Judge to think this way of the Nigerian Judiciary with all sorts of tales of soddy dealings with Judges because no UK Judge has EVER been sacked for corruption in the history of their judiciary. They simply do not have those kind of characters on the English bench deciding people's fate of a daily basis. Lucky English!

Now let's continue our talk on Nigeria. Do you remember Wamakko's case in the Sokoto Gubernatorial elections? Well, I still do not believe what happened in that case. The Constitution had stated that Governorship petitions ended at the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court had no jurisdiction over Governorship appeals at the time. But the then Chief Judge, Katsina-Alu, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, arranged to have the case heard as an appeal to the Supreme Court, even without constitutional jurisdiction, simply because, as we later got to learn from Justice Salami's affidavits, he had vested interest in the case. Now, a few years later, Olujimi SAN went to the Supreme Court on a matter that the Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction and rightfully in my view cited this same Wamakko's case as authority, but the Supreme Court ducked and said the Wamakko case was a one-off decision, or something to that effect. Can you beat that? The Supreme Court was too ashamed to follow its own earlier decision!! Now Katsina-Alu is enjoying retirement, fully paid for by my taxes. But that is just one instance. I can give you 2,000 other examples off the top of my head of similar incidents in recent times.

Previously, not so long ago, Nigerian Judges were the toast on the African continent. Justice Udo Udoma was Chief Judge of Uganda. Akinola Aguda was Chief Judge of Botswana. Justice Charles Onyeama, Justice Teslim Elias, Bola Ajibola, Chile Eboe-Osuji, etc, all sat as Judges of International Court of Justice and other tribunals. Every country wanted a Nigerian Judge on its bench. In fact Elias, because of his brilliance, had one of the longest tenures as a Judge in the history of the ICJ. He served for 15 years. This were incorruptible men. But today, countries would think twice before touching a Nigerian Judge with a ten-meter pole. Gambia tried it recently, and got its fingers burnt. It appointed Joseph Wowo as President of its Court of Appeal. Not long after, this fellow was caught on tape negotiating a bribe from a litigant, over a bottle of Hennessy. The President of a Country's Court of Appeal. He has since gone into hiding.

I did election petition last year. In fact, we handled 22 petitions in all. I know what we passed through in those cases. I know what went down in those cases. But i'll say no more on this. I'll just leave it at saying: "Let the law take its course". And as the Judges themselves say: "No one is above the law."

The DSS has done nothing wrong.

- Fidel Albert is a legal practitioner

I think Fidel Albert is right in his opinion.....


Whatever corruption charges against them, they should answer to it and prove themselves innocent. We can't continue to live in a nation where we pride ourselves in our social status. No one is above the law.

You earn my support @ Fidel Albert...

Curruption in the judiciary [sup][/sup]
Let the law take it's course but this time, I plead for it's full wrath. I can't understand why so called leaders in position of authority who are entrusted with sensitive responsibility can decend so low.
No dignit; no honour; no pride anymore!

One thing I, Fidel Albert, will not do, i will never join the NBA in any solidarity strike or protests on this issue. I will never shield anybody accused of corruption. When you are persecuted for no cause, only then will i come to your defense. And my reason is simple. I am that lawyer who has no life outside of my work. I burn my candles on both ends to prepare for cases. Because of this, i don't have many friends or a buoyant social life. It then pains me when i have to lose a case, not because my argument was not correct, but because the Judge was bribed. It pains me even more when the Client thinks it was my fault.

Imagine.

Previously, not so long ago, Nigerian Judges were the toast on the African continent. Justice Udo Udoma was Chief Judge of Uganda. Akinola Aguda was Chief Judge of Botswana. Justice Charles Onyeama, Justice Teslim Elias, Bola Ajibola, Chile Eboe-Osuji, etc, all sat as Judges of International Court of Justice and other tribunals. Every country wanted a Nigerian Judge on its bench. In fact Elias, because of his brilliance, had one of the longest tenures as a Judge in the history of the ICJ. He served for 15 years. This were incorruptible men. But today, countries would think twice before touching a Nigerian Judge with a ten-meter pole. Gambia tried it recently, and got its fingers burnt. It appointed Joseph Wowo as President of its Court of Appeal. Not long after, this fellow was caught on tape negotiating a bribe from a litigant, over a bottle of Hennessy. The President of a Country's Court of Appeal. He has since gone into hiding.

God help those supporting these shameless old men tearing apart the good names our past judges have built with their sweat, blood, time, and integrity.

Fake lawyers everywhere.

No wonder information ministry was budgeted with more money than agric ministry,so the can pay hungry lawyers like you to write poo.

Your name even sound's Portuguese.
Are you even a nigerian?

There are always two sides to a story. Here is another viewpoint

edimalo:
This sounds Crazy! No wonder the judges were released unconditionally.


Mahmud Mohammed, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, has confronted President Muhammadu Buhari in a face-to-face meeting in the Presidential Villa following the weekend crackdown on federal judges and two Supreme Court justices by the country’s secret police, The Trent can exclusively report.

The meeting, which held in the morning of Monday, October 10, 2016, was at the instance of the Honourable Justice Mohammed, multiple sources reveal.

Present at the meeting were Lawal Daura, the director-general of the Department of State Security Services, DSS, which serves as the country’s secret police and the president of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Babatunde Adejumo.

Our findings are that the meeting was very tense and the chief justice did not mince words when addressing the president on the matter. The visibly infuriated CJN tongue-lashed the president for violating the democratic principles of separation of powers and assuming the unconstitutional status of “supervisor” of the judiciary, an independent arm of government.


Justice Mohammed accused President Buhari of victimizing the judges targeted in the midnight crackdown by the DSS for refusing to be intimidated by the secret police over the matters of the election petitions of Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.

According to one of our top inside sources, the CJN exposed a series of scare and intimidation tactics carried out by the DSS director general, a kinsman to President Buhari, to make the bench bow to its wishes and overturn the judgement against the current governors of two oil-rich states.

Mohammed expressly accused the DSS DG of using the name of President Buhari in carrying out what he called an “unprecedented attempt to influence the bench and pervert justice” in the country. The president was visibly upset by the revelations and repeatedly denied knowledge of such harassment of of judges by the DSS.

Mr. Daura attempted to deny knowledge of such subterranean moves and claimed that the judges that were arrested, in what the secret police wrongly termed as “sting operation”, were corrupt. A claim which saw the CJN shout him down telling him to shut up and sit down.

After lambasting the secret police boss, Justice Mohammed proceeded to unreel instances in which Daura contacted judges handling the election petition cases claiming that ruling in favour of the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidates was “what President Buhari wanted”. Again, the president denies issuing such instructions.

The CJN also revealed that the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi offered the judges millions of dollars to overturn their ruling on the two election petitions. He said the honourable justices rebuffed Amaechi because they were hellbent on delivering a sound judgment on the cases which had been unduly sensationalised by politicians.

Justice Mohammed revealed that Amaechi also said that he was acting on the orders of the president and that in actual fact, the judges arrested over the weekend were those who refused to be corrupted by the DSS and Amaechi and insisted on preserving the independence and integrity of the bench.

On this revelation, Buhari presented a disturbed contenance, our sources say. The president requested that the CJN puts down his position which we are reliably informed has been done.

Insiders revealed to The Trent that the climate in Aso Rock is unusually tense following the posture and damning revelations by the CJN.

There are whispers in the corridors that based on the gravity of the allegations against the DSS director and Amaechi, Buhari may let go of the duo to “clear his name from the embarrassing episode’, a top security source told our reporter.

Justice Mohammed went on to describe the DSS action as “very saddening”, “deeply regrettable” and a “distressing and unfortunate” incident when he later addressed the valedictory court session held in honour of a retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Suleiman Galadima. The attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami was conspicuously absent at the event on Monday.

In the early hours of Saturday, October 8, 2016, operatives of the county’s secret police invaded the homes of a number of senior judges and abducted some of them from the homes under the guise of an anti-corruption battle.

“My lords, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, not to detract from this occasion, it is indeed very saddening and deeply regrettable, the distressing and unfortunate incident which occurred on Friday, October 7 and Saturday, October 8, 2016,” Mohammed said at the valedictory court session held in honour of a retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Suleiman Galadima

President Buhari appointed Lawal Daura, his kinsman from his hometown in Katsina on July 2, as head of the DSS after firing Ita Ekpeyong. Daura was recalled from retirement as he had retired from the service of the DSS when he reached the mandatory age of 60 according to the Civil Service rules of Nigeria. He is also a member of Buhari’s political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and served on the security committee for Buhari’s presidential campaign.

While the election petitions were being heard at the courts, the INEC resident electoral commissioners (RECs) for Akwa Ibom, Austin Okojie, was detained and tortured for 13 days and his Rivers State counterpart, Gesila Khan , was also detained for two weeks by Nigeria’s secret police. The harassment, detention, and torture of electoral officials of the two oil rich states was reportedly connected with the interest of President Buhari in reclaiming electoral victory from main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in those states.

None of the INEC officials detained by the DSS have been charged with any crime and the election petitions were eventually ruled in favour of the PDP by the Supreme Court.

http://techflave.com/2016/10/11/exclusive-chief-justice-nigeria-berates-buhari-face-face-meeting-aso-rock/

Lalatisca front page pls

babeface3:
My colleague Fidel Albert has this to say. Enjoy

Sometimes it is quite impossible to describe the disgust you feel in having to respond to absurd comments on your facebook wall. You see, this evening i posted my unalloyed support for the DSS in raiding houses of Judges and finding what i hear is evidence of corruption. Some people have called me names because of my position, but some of their reasons are downright heartbreaking, because these are people whom you expect to know better.

Pompey Esezobor wondered why i would hold this sort of opinion "in this time and age." But he forgot to tell me what "time and age" we are in for my opinion on this issue to be so inappropriate. Chinedu Anene was courageous enough to call my opinion "scandalous." Now, I readily forgive Chinedu Anene because he is a young lawyer. I can live with his insolent comment, without engaging him, for the simple reason that he is not worth my time. When he grows a bit older in the profession and understands the law better, I guarantee i'll find time to sit with him to remonstrate fine points of law. But not today.

To the many others who commented, please be assured that I respect your views. But here is my answer:

Judges are not immune from arrest or prosecution for corruption. Section 36 of the Constitution categorically states that any person may be arrested "on reasonable suspicion of having committed a criminal offence" Judges were not made an exception. In the wisdom of drafters of the Constitution, only the President, Vice-President, Governors and Deputy-Governors enjoy immunity from prosecution. Judges do have some sort of immunity though. But it is immunity from civil law suits by litigants for anything done in an official capacity by the Judges. But I'm sure nobody can argue that corruption is one of the official acts of a Judge. You may want to see the House of Lords reasoning in Re: Pinochet on how you lose your immunity once your act cannot be construed as an official act.So please, Judges, like everybody else, have no immunity from prosecution for corruption and certainly CAN BE ARRESTED.

I have heard arguments that they should have been referred to the NJC. This is quite a stupid argument to make, considering that the NJC is just an administrative disciplinary organ of the Judiciary and has no prosecutorial powers for crimes. This is far beyond the NJC. Yes, the NJC can recommend the dismissal of the Judges but that certainly does not foreclose their prosecution.Someone even talked about the judiciary being an arm of government and should not be interfered with by the executive. How bland an argument!! I wish they had referred to the law they were relying on to make this argument. Anyways, enforcement of the law will always lie with the executive, and the DSS is a law enforcement agency of the executive arm of government. Unless we are to argue that laws cannot be enforced against Judges, in which case i would just give up.

Someone said it was wrong to have raided the Judges' home at night without warrant. Who said this anyway? I think that person cannot be a lawyer. I'll tell you why. In the US, there is the legal principle called the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. This doctrine states that evidence obtained illegally cannot be admissible in Court against a suspect. So if you effect an arrest or obtain evidence illegally, no matter how damning that evidence is, it will not be admissible in the US Court and your suspect or accused will walk away a free man. The belief in US is that if the tree is bad, then the fruit, that is the evidence, must necessarily be bad too. Now when this doctrine was argued before the Nigerian courts, guess what the Judges decided? Yes, they decided that no matter how unlawful the process of obtaining evidence was, it would be admissible to convict in Nigeria. Consequently, no accused person can ever go free because he was arrested in the night instead of the day, or that he house was searched without warrant. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SUCCESSFULLY MAKE THAT ARGUMENT IN NIGERIAN COURTS!! It is how our Judges interpreted the law. The chicken has only come back to roost!! Are we to change the law the Judges upheld as right just because it's back to bite them?

Even then, let us not forget that in 2009, in this same USA, a sitting Governor of the State of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, was arrested in a dawn raid by FBI agents, quite like what the DSS did, on corruption charges. He was eventually impeached and convicted of the corruption charges. Well, that was America where issues of corruption are taken very seriously. We think differently in Nigeria.

I remember Ricky Tarfa's issue began like this. As a joke. Over 90 SANs went to put an appearance for Ricky Tarfa "in show of solidarity" on the first day of his arraignment, until the man himself filed an affidavit stating that he actually gave a Judge, before whom he had cases, money for 'burial." The next date of the case, the numbers of lawyers showing "solidarity" dwindled dramatically. Who would have thought that a SAN would do such things? But it happened. In Nigeria. It is happening everyday in fact. The sorts of bribery going on in the Judiciary is simply mind-boggling. Oh well, how do you suppose Ibori was set free by Nigerian Courts for the same crimes he was convicted of in UK courts? How do you suppose Peter Odili procured a perpetual injunction to free him from prosecution for corruption? Corruption in the Nigerian judiciary is as filthy as the Augean stables. Perfunctory cleaning will not do. Like Hercules, we will need to divert the flow of rivers through the judiciary to clean its mess. One thing I, Fidel Albert, will not do, i will never join the NBA in any solidarity strike or protests on this issue. I will never shield anybody accused of corruption. When you are persecuted for no cause, only then will i come to your defense. And my reason is simple. I am that lawyer who has no life outside of my work. I burn my candles on both ends to prepare for cases. Because of this, i don't have many friends or a buoyant social life. It then pains me when i have to lose a case, not because my argument was not correct, but because the Judge was bribed. It pains me even more when the Client thinks it was my fault.

This is why appellate Courts in Nigeria now hand down Judgments that inferior courts refuse to follow. Because they sometimes simply turn the law on its head on very clear and obvious points. Believe it or not, stare decisis is dead in Nigeria. Why are there so many conflicting decisions of the Court of Appeal? Where did inferior courts get the effrontery to dissent and depart from Supreme Court decisions?

I recently read a UK decision where someone had tried to argue that the same issues were already pending in Nigerian courts and so should not be re-litigated in the UK. It was so sad the way the British Judges smirked at the argument and immediately dismissed it and continued the proceedings in the UK. They did not for once think that pendency of the same issues in a Nigerian court was a serious constraint to their jurisdiction because, according to them, the Nigerian courts would take forever to resolve the issues and there was no assurance of the integrity of the system.So they proceeded with the case in UK anyway! That was a sad indictment. But, it is understandable for a UK Judge to think this way of the Nigerian Judiciary with all sorts of tales of soddy dealings with Judges because no UK Judge has EVER been sacked for corruption in the history of their judiciary. They simply do not have those kind of characters on the English bench deciding people's fate of a daily basis. Lucky English!

Now let's continue our talk on Nigeria. Do you remember Wamakko's case in the Sokoto Gubernatorial elections? Well, I still do not believe what happened in that case. The Constitution had stated that Governorship petitions ended at the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court had no jurisdiction over Governorship appeals at the time. But the then Chief Judge, Katsina-Alu, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, arranged to have the case heard as an appeal to the Supreme Court, even without constitutional jurisdiction, simply because, as we later got to learn from Justice Salami's affidavits, he had vested interest in the case. Now, a few years later, Olujimi SAN went to the Supreme Court on a matter that the Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction and rightfully in my view cited this same Wamakko's case as authority, but the Supreme Court ducked and said the Wamakko case was a one-off decision, or something to that effect. Can you beat that? The Supreme Court was too ashamed to follow its own earlier decision!! Now Katsina-Alu is enjoying retirement, fully paid for by my taxes. But that is just one instance. I can give you 2,000 other examples off the top of my head of similar incidents in recent times.

Previously, not so long ago, Nigerian Judges were the toast on the African continent. Justice Udo Udoma was Chief Judge of Uganda. Akinola Aguda was Chief Judge of Botswana. Justice Charles Onyeama, Justice Teslim Elias, Bola Ajibola, Chile Eboe-Osuji, etc, all sat as Judges of International Court of Justice and other tribunals. Every country wanted a Nigerian Judge on its bench. In fact Elias, because of his brilliance, had one of the longest tenures as a Judge in the history of the ICJ. He served for 15 years. This were incorruptible men. But today, countries would think twice before touching a Nigerian Judge with a ten-meter pole. Gambia tried it recently, and got its fingers burnt. It appointed Joseph Wowo as President of its Court of Appeal. Not long after, this fellow was caught on tape negotiating a bribe from a litigant, over a bottle of Hennessy. The President of a Country's Court of Appeal. He has since gone into hiding.

I did election petition last year. In fact, we handled 22 petitions in all. I know what we passed through in those cases. I know what went down in those cases. But i'll say no more on this. I'll just leave it at saying: "Let the law take its course". And as the Judges themselves say: "No one is above the law."

The DSS has done nothing wrong.

- Fidel Albert is a legal practitioner

A BILLION LIKES FOR YOU COUNSEL. NO ONE SHOULD BE A CLOG IN THE WHEEL OF THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION.

This is a good write-up that calls for somber reflection. Mynd44, lalasticlala kindly consider this for frontpage.

laudate:
There are always two sides to a story. Here is another viewpoint

Una better throw this trash into the bin where it belongs. The desperation you guys have been showing to give the trash coverage, shows you are nothing but foot soldiers of corrupt folks.

RUBBISH WRITE UP

PLS READ THIS

Buhari And DSS' Plot To Own Nigeria Till Death. by wacaledu: 2:50pm
Ewa edmund ekpo wrote and with respect to every other thing I have read on this topic, I agree intoto!

First I speak as a lawyer.
What is wrog with arresting a judge over corrupt charges in this fantastically corrupt country of ours? Nothing! Absolutely nothing because nobody is above the law.
So what then is wrong with the recent SSS raid and search of the homes of judges and even arresting some of the justices- probably some of their family members inclusive? Everything!
The reason here is the same. The SSS is not above the law!
This is so because the SSS as the case may be is the third of the three national security agencies established by the National Security Agencies Act. And the act defines their functions and jurisdiction in plain and simple English conveyed through section 2(3)(a),(b)&(c).
This is how it reads:
(3) The State Security Service shall be charged
with responsibility for-
(a) the prevention and detection within Nigeria
of any crime against the internal security of Nigeria;
(b) the protection and preservation of all
non-military classified matters concerning the internal security of Nigeria;
and
(c) such other responsibilities affecting
internal security within Nigeria as the National Assembly or the President, as
the case may be, may deem necessary.

Hence, the SSS has no business raiding people's homes over mere allegations or suspicions of fraud. That is what the EFCC and Police are empowered to do through laid down procedures. Except and only if these judges have links with threats to national security then the SSS utterly acted Ultra Vires.
Now even if the SSS were so empowered the law on searching and arresting also was not followed. But then how does one follow the law to do illegitimate acts?
The requirement of the law is that a person(s) seeking to search a premises must first be identified in person and numbers and equally searched by the owner or adult occupant of the premises before he or they may proceed with the search still in the company of the adult occupant.
But the Gestapo style with which the SSS carried out their action violated all of these.
The import and purport of this is that the so called monies recovered from these homes may jolly well have been planted by the same SSS to blackmail their victims and justify their commando rampage!
In essence, their action is nothing more than mere Burglary and Kidnapping!
Also to be considered in this light is the right to personal life and property of the victims as guaranteed in section 34 of the 1999 constitution.
Similarly, it is without question that the constitution in sections 4, 5 & 6 clearly defines the three arms of government which the Judiciary is one and has hitherto lived up to its constitutional expectations where its disciplinary machinery known as the National Judicial Council (NJC) has not failed to discipline judges duly like it recently sacked the chief judge of Enugu state. And it is after this that the regular trial is proceeded with against the person who thereafter is tried under the status of "former judge." That is how military officers are first dismissed through court Marshall before being prosecuted in regular courts and Police Officers dismissed through Orderly Room before they are tried in regular courts.

Perhaps I should speak like a reasonable man:
So the SSS raided homes of judges at night and came up with over N300m evidence? The question is when did they count the money? Did they storm the homes with counting machines? It takes almost a whole day to count N100 million Naira with a counting machine in a bank at least I have personally witnessed four people counting ordinary 23 Million Naira in over 5 hours with the use of counting machine in a bank. So how did the SSS within 2/3 hours of raiding and rampaging quickly count over N300m at night?
In Port Harcourt they claimed they were resisted from entering Justice Liman's home yet they knew how much was inside the house they never entered. Meanwhile, the said justice has come out to state categorically that it was not his house but his neighbor's house that they attempted to raid which confirms Gov. Nyesom Wike's sarcasm that he didn't know which judge was living in the house they attempted to raid when he came out to arrest the situation as the chief security officer of the state. The man claims he was actually informed by his neighbour in house 34 whom they were threatening to raid and he watched them from his window in House 33 on the same street. Unbelievable!
This means that the DSS went to a wrong house and were still able to discover $2m in the wrong house! Such inefficiency! Such incompetence! What a food for thought!

Now I speak as a politician:
The Chief of Army Staff Lt. General Buratai has recently been cleared by CCB for owning properties in Dubai worth $1.5m because he filled a form claiming the properties belong to his spouse but Dame Patience Jonathan who rose in the ranks of civil service to permanent secretary and was wife of a Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President and President for five years cannot own properties undeserving of the eyes of EFCC. And nobody is asking what work Mrs Buratai does to own such properties in Dubai?
The panel of enquiry set up by the government of River state last year indicted former Gov. Amaechi of N53b loot of state reserve fund stolen between 2013 & 2014 yet the FG went ahead to appoint him minister.
Justice Piginda while presiding over River state governorship electoral tribunal revealed the DSS intimidated and attempted to bribe him but he declined and was replaced only for Ambrosa who replaced him to deliver the very judgement he refused to give in exchange for the bribe. Thank God the judgement was overturned. But nobody is investigating Ambrosa and others.

It is equally imperative to note that justice Dimgba one of the raided judges recently gave a decision against the continued detention of a retired Air Commodore, Mohammed Umar who was arrested following allegations of fraud, illegal possession of firearms and abuse of trust and granted him bail with a bond of N100 million. Justice Dimgba had in his ruling ordered the SSS to release Mr. Umar or risk being committed by his court. Unfortunately, the SSS failed to obey the order and continued to hold Mr. Umar. But they did not fail to raid Dimgba's home.
It is also very important to note that Justice Adeniyi Ademola is the judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who insisted that the secret trial of Dasuki is unconstitutional and gave the order that it is mandatory for a defendant in a criminal matter to be physically present in court at every stage of the prosecution except where the presence of an accused is excused by court for clear reasons. We are all aware of PMB's disposition to Dasuki and the idea of granting him bail.
Justice Ngwuta also on the other hand is said to have been very vocal in the Ekiti Governorship election case where he delivered the lead judgment in the disputed governorship election in Ekiti State, between the APC and Governor Ayo Fayose
upholding the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Ekiti State Governorship election tribunal, which had both ruled that the petition challenging Fayose’s victory lacked merit.
So, what we have today is mere political intimidation of the judiciary to follow the body movement of the presidency and this is more so considering the proclivities of Governorship Electoral Tribunal over the just concluded Elections in Edo state where APC mysteriously won courtesy of N2m doled out to INEC officers to change results in favour of APC and DSS is yet to raid their homes.
Suffice it to observe also that the present D.G of the infamous SSS was the chairman of APC intelligence team during the last election campaign- a role which earned him the recall from retirement to become the D.G of SSS. Now he goes about harassing everybody suspected to be against APC! Imagine the loyalty!

Now, I speak as an Akwa Ibom Son.
Justice Okoro is from akwa ibom state and unfortunately the only one we have managed to have at the level of the Supreme Court in the past 40 years. He was a lawyer, then a magistrate, then a judge of the high court before he was promoted to court of appeal and is now at the Supreme Court and according to the SSS such a man cannot be rich?! They claim they raided his home and found €1000 and about N4m. They want us to believe he collected it as bribe? That is if truly the money was his. Perhaps, we should raid Amaechi's House, or Daura's or The I.G's and even Zarha Buhari's house let's see how much we can find there.

Alas! Permit me to speak as a skeptic here:
Seven justices sat over the governorship election tribunal appeal at the Supreme Court where the present chief judge and Justice Onoghen (CJN hopeful) were part of. So we are talking about almost 21 justices across board. Meanwhile, Okoro didn't seat over any of these cases and is being accused of collecting money to influence the judgments. So whatever happens to the rest justices? Assuming that Okoro sat in any of the cases still only two justices make dissenting judgement. So he couldn't reasonably be the man to catch let alone beating him black and blue. A gesture Boko Haram suspects never get. Could this be a plan to push out southern justices from the hierarchy deserving of the position of the Chief Justice of the Federation? I still remember of Justice Udo Udoma was sent to Gambia when he was due as CJN, I do remember how Karibi Whyte was equally sent out of this country for some flimsy assignment.
So are Onighen JSC and others from the south safe now that we have at least three most senior justices in the hierarchy from the south?

Let me now speak as a philosopher.
It was Ellie Wiesel who warned that "there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." So now that the FG has by Executive Terrorism decided to molest custodians of the hope of the common man in the name of fighting corruption by selective victimization no matter how noble their claims may appeal it is overwhelmed by the ignobility of their actions. When an executive arm decides to act capriciously with total disregard for rule of law it intrinsically retunes our social contract to what Thomas Hobbes referred to as "life in the pre-societal days..." where "might" in the words of Thrasymacchus makes "right"- a survival of the fittest.
Now, where is the wisdom of the staré decisis in Military Governor of Lagos State & Ors v Ojukwu that "where there is rule of law self help takes the back seat."
But, the presidential aide on prosecution Mr. Okoi Obono Obla unwittingly let the cat out of the bag during his interview on Channel T.V this morning when he confessed "we are looking for the N30b that left the coffers of Rivers State between October and December 2015 and everybody knows when the Supreme Court judgement was delivered" This means that the FG knows what they are looking for but since the law will not let them have their way they decided to do it their way. Ironically, it was the same law that he used to avoid presenting his certificate before contesting for president that he is now paying back with a bad coin.
First, it was individual state governments, then the legislature, then the press, now it is the judiciary. Who knows what and who next?
Perhaps now that the law becomes helpless before the people the people are left with one choice. Self help!
Is Buhari's ignorance, stupidity, incompetence and cluelessness taking Nigeria back to John Locke's state of nature?
Well, since they want to take the laws into their hands I hope those hands of theirs are big and strong enough for the law and us.

Okpo Ewa Edmund is a lawyer, arbitrator and literati presently serving as supervisor for tourism in. Okobo LGA, Akwa Ibom State.
DSS are welcome to raid my home also.
(Quote) (Report) 3 Likes (Unlike) (Share)

laudate:
There are always two sides to a story. Here is another viewpoint

i like that excerpt you added up there, unfortunately, everyone will turn blind eyes and deaf ears to the section where the CJN mentioned Amaechi and Lawal