Retired senior judges serve as consultants in fixing judgments - Ayo Salami

The Retired President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami on Tuesday raises alarms that there are reports of some judges and retired senior judges who practice as consultants in fixing judgments in the country.

Salami, who alleged that these consultants take money from litigants to bribe the judges or intimidate judges to pervert the course of justice. He made the statement while speaking in Ilorin, in an opening ceremony of the 2014 biennial law week of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ilorin branch; with the titled, ‘A centenary of legal practice in Nigeria: 1914-2014: Legacies and lessons for the next century.’

According to him; “It is my respectful view that appeal should be made to these retired senior justices to leave the despicable role of bribing or intimidating judges. They should engage themselves in other respectable vocations. The judges who lend themselves to these dishonourable practices of receiving money or lending themselves to perverting the course of justice under the guise of not receiving reward monetary or otherwise should note that there are other means of checking the excesses."

“Corruption in the Nigerian judiciary is very real and certain and has eaten deep into the system. It must, however, be noted that it is not every  that is corrupt and dishonorable. There are some who are clearly identifiable as corrupt but they are protected by the system.” Salami said.

He also said the nobility of the Law profession was waning. He accused the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association of having ’meekly submitted to political leadership in return for patronage.’

He said consequently the NBA did not deserve any better treatment from the alleged shabby treatment meted out to it as a result of one seat that was allotted for the association at the national conference,

which NBA protested and pulled out of the confab.

The Chairman, NBA, Ilorin branch, Mr. Mobolaji Ojibara decried lack of financial autonomy and full self-accounting status for the judiciary.

He said that 34 out of the 36 states in Nigeria had yet to implement financial autonomy for the judiciary.

According to him only Bayelsa and Nassarawa states have ensured financial autonomy for their judiciary. He added that lack of judicial financial autonomy was inimical to dispensation of justice and

efficiency of judiciary.

The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed said that the ongoing national dialogue has the capacity to strengthen the tenets of national development and cohesion by healing age-long national wounds. He appealed to lawyers to play greater role in the conference despite the NBA’s pull-out from the confab.

Punch