By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos—Leading human rights activist, Femi Falana, SAN, has insisted that the Judges arrested over corrupt allegations of corruption must be arraigned in court to serve as deterrent to others.

The fiery lawyer, however, described the trend as, “A very dangerous phenomenon to the judicial system of Nigeria and Nigerians at large.’’

Men of the Department of State Service, DSS,  recently stormed the homes of some judicial officers including two Supreme Court justices in search of evidence for alleged corruption against them.

At the end of the search,  DSS reported that huge sums of money in both local and foreign currencies were recovered from the judges who were immediately arrested and detained.

They have since been granted administrative bail as they are expected to be arraigned in court soon. This is the first time judicial officers will be arrested for corruption in Nigeria.

Falana, spoke at the weekend during a reception for the newly appointed Editor of Vanguard Media. Mr. Eze Anaba, at Chinese Restaurant, Isaac John, Ikeja, GRA, organized by his friends.

Dignitaries at the occasion include, General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of Vanguard Media, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye, Mr Richard Akinnola, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, Mr. Tokunbo Muminu, Executive Secretary of SERAP, Mr. Habib Aruna, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Mr Dapo Olufade, Shaka Momodu, Tunde Rahman, media aide to former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, Mrs Aisha Tosan, Tony Okonedo of NLNG, among others.

From left, Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, Eze Anaba, his son, Kosisochukwu, Mrs Itoro Eze-Anaba and GM/Editor-in-Chief of Vanguard, Gbenga Adefaye cutting a cake at the event.

Falana, who poured encomium on Eze for his integrity and professionalism on the job, urged him not to relent in the good work, saying, “I pledge here today that I will make my legal services available to Vanguard, pro bono, henceforth.”

He continued: “This maybe funny to all of you, but the most dangerous aspects of corruption in anywhere in the world is judicial corruption.

“The minister may be corrupt, public officers may be corrupt, but to say that judge is corrupt, is a dangerous phenomenon.

“A judge has more powers than the President or governor of the country, inspite of the enormous powers the constitution has given them. A judge is the only one who can say you are hereby, sentenced to death.

“The President cannot sentence any Nigerian to death. He may not like you, maybe he may attempt to say they jail you, but under a constitution arrangement you can get the person out but a judge can sentence a person to death.

“And if a person can have a right to sentence human-beings to death and he is collecting bribe, it is very dangerous, because he can sentence an innocent man to death because of  bribe.

“And that’s why am appealing to you because we have crème de-la crème of Nigeria media here, please we have condemned the manner of arrest, we must now move forward to find out what was found in the homes of those judges, we cannot have a situation where a house of a judge is converted into bureau de change, it is not acceptable.

“Secondly, if a jurist, a Supreme Court Justice can say publicly, I left my house to go and see a minister, to do what? to negotiate bribe in respect of pending cases in the court, or a supreme court justice can say my lord the chief justice, I told you this minister came, this failed gubernatorial candidate came to see me, we are definitely living in most difficult time.

“And when I read all those stories I thought of the Supreme Court of Esho, of Oputa, Nnamani and the rest of them yourself could any reasonable person in his wildest imagination ever dreamt of going to talk to Oputa about a pending case am sure right there the police would be invited to take you out.

“Those guys commanded such respect that you will never suggest you were going to see a judge. We now have a situation in our country where a Senior Advocate of Nigeria would have seen a judge and while you are burning the midnight oil to compete with him the matter would have been settled.

“That is why, yes, its bad to raid homes of judges but the homes of Nigerians are raided daily and we must appreciate that. Now that the homes of judges are been raided may be we can all now decide to have irreducible minimum standard for the treatment of suspects in Nigeria. A judge is not a special human being, a criminal suspect is a criminal suspect. Our (lawyers) duties are to ensure that a person is not detained beyond normal 48 hours.

“These judges were very lucky, they were arrested in the dead of the night before the close of work the second day they were released. In a country like Nigeria, I laugh when I hear them talk. In Nigeria there are 10,000 police stations in Nigeria, none has beddings. When you are detained at a police station, you buy a space you cannot wear your dress because of the heat that’s what going on in our country. So when they arrest judges and you say Gestapo tactics, Gestapo how,? Some Nigerians are used to Gestapo every day.

“So let’s talk of human rights standard for everybody, for judges who have been arrested, they must have their day in court whether you like or not, for lawyers who have been arrested they must have their day in court. Because in the interest of all of us, judicial corruption must be exterminated because it is dangerous.”

Encomium on Anaba

“I would not have been here, but I’m here because you (Eze) are a man of integrity. This is why am saying to judges who are corrupt and to those journalists, if a Nigerian bribes you and you think it’s a secret matter, he will tell another person and say do not tell anybody and the story would go on.

“Eze keep up the good work because you have risen to this height without collecting bribe, and all those who are pouring encomiums, on you today, the day you betrayed the confidence reposed in you, we are going to desert you, but we pray it will never happen to you, do not behave like our judges who are currently under interrogation, that will not be your portion, and as my wife use to say, In Jesus Name. Amen.