By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

The National Judicial Council, NJC’s probe into allegations of corruption levelled against 23 judges across the country has been delayed due to the refusal of most of them to reply queries issued them by the panels raised by the council.

Findings by Vanguard showed that the panels found almost all of them culpable and accordingly recommended that they be reprimanded by the judiciary to serve as a deterrent to others in the system.

However a top judicial source told Vanguard last night that the affected judges had adopted a delay tactic to prevent the NJC from reaching a decision on their sack.

It was learnt that the delay in replying the queries issued to the affected judges was responsible for the suspen-sion of action on them during the last meeting of NJC in December.

The source said: “It is true that the panels raised by NJC to review the files of each of the judges had since completed their assignments and submitted their reports.

“But the only snack is that most of the judges accused of corruption have refused to reply the queries issued to them by the panels.”