Political Issues
Executive Intimidation And The True Reason Behind The DSS Raid
Jeff Okoroafor
On the night of Friday and the early hours of Saturday last week, heavily armed security agents on the order of President Muhammadu Buhari, swooped on the residences of senior Judges, breaking doors and threatening to harm their family members and aides. At the end of the operation which lasted at least 12 hours, the Department of Security Services (DSS) arrested Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and John Okoro, both of the Supreme Court bench, as well as Justice Adeniyi Ademola and Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja. This act by the DSS has left many Nigerians wondering if we are in a military government or a democratic one.
I have taken time to study a few of the submissions or arguments as the case may be, of some Nigerians, learned (legal luminaries) and unlearned. Half of the opinions I have so far read took the path of, “as long as there is no immunity covering the judges” and “since the judges are not more than the ordinary Nigerians, why can’t they be subjected to the whims and caprices, criminal prescrudent, as enshrined in the constitution?” That, is their own side of the argument. I will address this in about a minute:
The background reason and foundation why the DSS had to do what they have done was because Justice Mahmud Mohammed, who is the current Chief Justice of Nigeria, is about retiring and in the tradition of the Supreme Court, Justice Walter Onnoghen, who is from Cross River State, is the next Senior Justice of the apex court, and should naturally be Justice Mahmud Mohammed’s successor. But because President Buhari does not like him, in addition to the open declaration made by northern elites April this year that they don’t want Justice Onnoghen to be made the next Chief Justice of Nigeria, hence the brutality over the weekend by agents of the DSS. The so-called sting operation carried out was only a preamble, a camouflage to making sure that Onnoghen does not assume the office of the Chief Justice of the Federation of Nigeria being a Christian and a Southerner. This is the game plan. Allow this to fly and the next thing you’d hear is the arrest and subsequent prosecution of Justice Onnoghen, with the naming of another justice, from the North, an acting Chief Justice of Nigeria with a claim that there can’t be a vaccum. This is the end goal.
It is important to note that the Executive, the President has no constitutional power or authority to arrest Judges. The highest he should or can do, is to recommend to the National Judicial Council (NJC) to look into the activities of the Judge or Judges in question. Of course, last week you heard that four out of five Judges were recommended for retirement and one for sack, by the NJC. So the question remains, why is the same procedure not used in this particular instance? This should have been recommended to the NJC, the only statutorily appointed body, to discipline them and hand them over to the Inspector General of Police for Prosecution as they, the NJC, have no prosecutorial power. If the Executive also felt it was not proper recommending to NJC, they had two options – either to allow it to maintain the status quo, or approach the National Assembly to make an enactment wherein the powers of the NJC can be obstructed. Until this is done, the Executive, no matter how high-handed, does not have the right or power, to venture in the affairs of the judges or justices. It amounts to Executive intimidation of the judicial arm of the government, which is supposed to be separate and independent of each other and that is exactly the point of law.
Coming to the argument of immunity and whether or not the judges are more than the ordinary Nigerian, the adequate response to this is that they are not more than the ordinary Nigerian and cannot be above the law. However, those asking these questions have forgotten or rather failed to also ask why the constitution made provision for the separation of power, as well as set aside a consolidated funding so that the Executive will not which-hunt them and twist their arm to what they want them to do. As a matter of fact, what is happening now is a ploy to cower the judiciary, especially Judges, right from the high court, court of appeal and the supreme court, to do the bidding of the president. It is immoral; it is unconstitutional; it is sardonic and completely declared void.
The DSS has no business arresting Judges and neither does the Executive. Constitutionally speaking, the primary duty of the DSS is the security of the President and his Vice as well as the internal security of the nation itself. Nigeria is not a jungle and we have no business behaving like animals. Due process rule of law must ensue in every of our dealings. You don’t clean up a dirty room by burning it down. Whatever game this is, in the end, let Justice Walter Onnoghen take up his office as the next Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Executive should respect the other arms of government with separate powers and independence.
Corruption is deep in the judiciary. This must be addressed and urgently. But we must do this within the confines of the law.
God bless Nigeria.
