₦airaland Forum

this one no be gynaecologist oh, na Model.

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.

bonechamberlain:
When would the executive act on its corrupt members, they are quick to act on the judiciary and legislature, let the other arms of govt act on the executive, corruption should not be a fight for only does not in buhari's executive.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Nigeria must be very vigilant else we would gradually be harbouring another extremist dictator.

well written sir, know any Governor elected through electoral fraud? share details with us @ www.electionoffenders.ng

eph12:
So we don't need to wait till 2019 to vote out Buhari? Wonderful!

yes you don't have to. send us proof and details of electoral fraud and we do the rest.

Know anyone elected through voter fraud? Share your pictures with us www.electionoffenders.ng

Tired of the government?vote out bad leaders @ www.electionoffenders.ng

Tired of this government? Vote out elected officials @ www.electionoffenders.ng

mmb:
1.Justice Ayo Isa Salami was rough handed, illegally suspended and forcefully expelled from the bench, not a single response from NBA;

2. A promising young lawyer was killed in Rivers state recently , not even a statement from NBA;

3.Several courts proceedings/sittings disrupted in Ekiti and a High Court Judge was even slapped with the support of Ayodele Fayose, not even a press release by the NBA;

4.Bayelsa State Gov Dickson led thugs to a Court sitting in Yanogoa the judge was attacked and several others not a single statement from NBA;

5.Supreme Court nullified the right of citizens in electing their leaders through free and fair elections in Rivers and 2 other states by declaring Smart Card Reader illegal not a word from NBA;

Corrupt Justices were apprehended and to be prosecuted, a powerful response from NBA threatening a show down; who is fooling who for goodness sake?

Let's all shame the NBA;

Let's declare our support for the ongoing war on corruption;

No matter who you are, or where you are,; Executive, Judiciary or Legislature if you do anyhow you shall see any how;

NOTE: This is my own personal opinion.

cc:lalasticlala

wish i could give you a thousand likes. The NBA made a wrong move, the reputation of the NBA chairman is at stake. Vote out bad leaders, @ www.electionoffenders.ng

]Judges should not be a clog in the wheel of the fight against corrpution. i am sure after this saga our prisons will be decongested,Jugdes will treat cases relating right to dinity of persons and human rights seriouly. share your voting experience with us www.electionoffenders.ng

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cyrilamx:
https://d19lga30codh7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Olusola-Oke.jpg

THE defection of Chief  Olusola Oke from the APC  to the Alliance for Democracy, AD, is stoking crisis in his new party.

While members of the state executive of the AD insist that Oke has fulfiled all conditions to qualify him as the party candidate, the Youth wing of the party  has disowned him.

The youths under the aegis of the  Alliance for Democracy, AD, Youth Vanguard, OADYV insisted that Akin Olowookere remained the party’s candidate for the election.

Olowookere was elected over a month ago as the party’s candidate and was in that position until Oke defected and Olowookere stepped down for him.

The youths in a statement signed by Arowosafe Oladeji, Adenike Oluwadarasimi, and Ojo Oluseyi Taki insisted that Dr Olowookere remained the party’s candidate. They said in a statement issued yesterday that they were not involved in the process that led to his replacement with Oke.

The statement read: “It filtered to our hearing lately that our lawful mandate freely given to Dr. Akin Olowokere has been turned to a commodity and purportedly traded off to Chief Olusola Oke.

Considering the effect of this ignoble action on our party which is gradually picking its pieces together in our Sunshine state, we will, to the best of our ability and capacity, all known legal means thwart this unfortunate development brought about by the alleged buyer and seller."

But addressing newsmen in Akure, the Chairman and Secretary, Messrs Seriki Adebobola and Sola Agboola respectively said that Oke has been chosen as a replacement of the former flag bearer of the party.

The party executive dissociated itself from the protest of the youths saying the Youth Group was alien to the party. Adebobola said: “what I want to tell you is that in AD, we have structure. Before anything can emanate from the party, it must pass through a due process.

The youth leader of AD do not know anything about Olowookere Youth Vanguard. If at all they exist, they are alien to our party. Although Olowookere may have his own Youth Vanguard, but they are not AD Youth Vanguard. AD has finalized the adoption of Chief Olusola Oke as the candidate of the party for the November 26 governorship election in the state. Oke is the authentic candidate of AD."

“We AD are members of the same family and we don’t want to promote any wrangling in the party.”


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/10/okes-defection-tears-ad-apart/

Good work sir, share more news with us at www.electionoffenders.ng

Finally Nigerians have found someone who can sepearate the goat from the Yam!!!!www.electionoffenders.ng

SoluB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or59or5eQvA

Good work sir, share content like this with us@ www.electionoffenders.ng

Let us encourage the fight against corruption. know anyone elected through Voter Fraud? Lets expose him together. www.electionoffenders.ng

public officer holders can be held to account! Lets check how they got elected. visit our site www.electionoffenders.ng