First, I speak as a lawyer. What is wrong 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
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cc: Mynd44 i'll appreciate if this post is given a fp.

People must say something either good or bad... Judges and lawyers are meant for rich and mighty, i no pity people wey d pity them

Make i sleep under bed with my mosquito net wrapped

@bnovative thank you for posting this article, its well written and touches most parts of the conspiracy theory of this funny gov't.

Fantastically corrupt trash to defend corrupt judges. some people are above the law joor, those who have money to get perpetual injunction from investigation

Those judge pose a deadly threat to national security so DSS laden with responsibility to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of Nigeria can arrest anybody. since Bribery is a criminal offence SSS can go for it.
If any corrupt judge feel bad he should sue FG/DSS to Court and claim the innocence.

I wonder why ..... Nigerian thinks corrupt human are still judge outside courtroom, hence generalizing an Individual of them as Judiciary forgeting we have 100s of them.

it takes almost a whole day to count 100m NGN trash all the way to defend ur ppl of same profession. Hope u aren't going to a judge like them.










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Everybody is now a lawyer, that's exactly the kind of Mentality Nigerians come up with



So if it's wrong to raid judges you are saying it's right to for them to be corrupt

What a thought provocative write-up!

Zombies only want to hear corruption against perceived Enemies but mention corruption committed by,fashola,dubaitai,danbazua,kylie,amaechi and co you see them turning around to worshiping corruption.

AndyMolarAllwel:
it takes almost a whole day to count 100m NGN trash all the way to defend ur ppl of same profession. Hope u aren't going to a judge like them.










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Also respond to this: " 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."