The National Judicial Council, NJC, has said that it will not ask the judges that were targeted in the illegal crackdown by the secret police, the SSS, to step down as it has no powers to do so.
The NJC stated this on Friday, October 21, 2016 in response to volte-face by the president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Abubakar Mahmoud, saying that the seven judges arrested by the SSS be asked to step down pending the outcome of an investigation.
In its response signed by its acting director of information, Soji Oye, the NJC said Mr. Mahmoud’s advice “is unacceptable to the NJC; as it breaches the 2014 Revised Judicial Discipline Regulations formulated by NJC pursuant to Section 160 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
The NJC also said Mr. Mahmoud was present when it took an earlier position condemning the raid of the judges’ homes by the State Security Service (SSS) a fortnight ago.
The NBA president, according to reliable sources, after being influenced of the Nigerian presidency, make a complete u-turn from his initial position on the illegality of the invasion of homes of federal judges by the State Security Services, SSS, also known as the DSS.
On the day that the SSS invaded the judges homes and whisked them away, an operation sanctions by President Muhammadu Buhari, the NBA held an emergency executive meeting. The organisation condemned the draconian attacks on the judges and declared a state of emergency in the judiciary.
But in a surprise move, yesterday, the NBA president, broke with the association’s position on the crackdown and sided with the Buhari government and called for the judges – whose writes were violated by the secret police – to leave the bench until they are “cleared”.
The Buhari government has not charged any of the judges to court and so far, the Buhari government is trying them by media.
The NJC had issued a statement days after the attack on the judges revealing that some of the judges affected in the crackdown didn’t have any petition before the council for any infractions and others whom the SSS had petitioned against, were cleared of wrongdoing following the inability of the SSS to present any kind of evidence to substantiate its allegations.
