Saraki Shenanigan: Something Needs to Change

I have often wondered what we need to do, judicially, to get some sense of semblance moving in the direction of arresting impunity in Nigeria and somehow bringing sanity back to public life. The sense of fatalistic helplessness in the country worry many so much. When I wrote my novel, Together Unto Eden, the crux of that tale was less about love but Nigeria's descent into moral and developmental irredeemability.
I am not a lawyer and I fervently hope that my submission would make some sense to those far more knowledgeable in these matters. Considering the Saraki shenanigan, methinks it is high time something changes, more fundamentally, in the Nigerian judicial system. I believe it is patently wrong for anyone to approach the temple of justice with a request to stop a trial and every other acts that are tied to it. For me, such a step is actually judicial gangsterism for any minister in the temple of justice to seek to stop a trial.

What happened to setting aside and or overruling a judgement through the normal course of appeal, if someone believes that the outcome is unjust and or unfair? I pray that that the honourable justices of the Supreme court make the Saraki case a constitutional benchmark and rule that no court in the land that is able to hear an appeal is empowered to stop a trial no matter how defective. The power to stop trials is an abuse of judicial powers. The fact of defect, inherent or not, in a trial process, an arraignment or a charge is enough, by itself, for an accused to premise his/her appeal against the judgement. In any case, the law provides that such defects can be cured in the process of trials. 

The power of the state to try anyone should not be abridged through this robbery process. I am still praying that one day, someone will reopen Dr. Peter Odili's case and throw into the dustbin the perpetual injunction against investigation and trial that he managed to secure.

By; Oluseyi Faseyiku