Abuja:  The ACN said  that the Nigerian judiciary was on trial and not Justice Ayo Salami.

The party said this in a statement made available  in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

“The purported suspension of the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, by the NJC is the height of judicial mischief.

“It has only succeeded in putting the country’s judiciary, rather than Justice Salami, on trial,” the statement said.

The National Judiciary Council (NJC) on Thursday announced the suspension of  Salami after its meeting in Abuja.

The statement condemned the decision by a few “hard liners’’ at the NJC meeting,  “who ignored the fact that their action is prejudicial and can denigrate the council and indeed, the Nigerian judiciary – just because of their desperation to get rid of Justice Salami.

“There is something terribly awry in a system in which a body set up to uphold the rule of law and protect the judiciary is the same one that has gone ahead to undermine it.

“If the President of the Court of Appeal cannot get a fair hearing as it has happened in this case, what hope is there for ordinary Nigerians?

”When a body like the NJC  ignores the fact that the case on which it deliberated and took a decision is in court, despite acknowledging receipt of court summons, what does it say of the Nigerian judiciary that has been hailed as towering above the other arms of government, despite a few shortcomings?

“What message is the NJC sending to the international community and the foreign investors that are being daily courted to come and invest in Nigeria?

”It is a sad day in Nigeria, that a body set up to protect the integrity of the judiciary has instead dragged it to the mud,” the statement said.

The statement also said that “in spite of the action of a few members of the NJC, the Nigerian judiciary still has a crop of men and women of integrity’’. (NAN)