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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