…Asks NJC, NBA To Intervene
By Ovie Okpare
Elder statesman and prominent businessman in Delta State, Chief Morrison Olori, has called on the National Judicial Council and the Nigerian Bar Association to intervene in the growing corruption allegations against judges in the country.
Olori, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said corruption in the nation’s judiciary leading to conflicting judgements must be checked as Nigeria heads into 2023 general elections.
He spoke on Thursday while addressing journalists at his residence in Ughelli, Delta State, saying corruption in the country’s judiciary was killing the justice system.
Olori, who likened the situation in the nation’s judiciary to Arabian nights tales “Ali Baba and 40 thieves” said something urgent must be done to save the country from being at the “mercy of corrupt judges and judicial workers”
He called on the various federal government agencies as well as the Nigerian Bar Association to investigate judges and lawyers alleged to be involved in procuring judgement on the ground technicalities.
According to him, “The judiciary should be sincere to Nigerians. Some years ago, when a case goes to court, the reality of the case can be known by the judges and everybody, but then the judge will cite a similar case that happened either in Court of Appeal or in the Supreme Court which the lawyer is supposed to do but he couldn’t do it. He (judge) will then cite it for the case to get judgement for either the plaintiff or the defendant.
“But nowadays, instead of them doing so, as long as money passes through their hands they will find a technical lockout to kill the case, which I see as corruption. And as far as the common man is not getting the real judgement from the judiciary, we will continue to get bad governance.
“I appeal to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC) to look into this matter seriously to ensure that they handle it so that the judges will not go into this corruption that is now killing the whole federation of Nigeria.
And I can bet you that it is the judges that are doing this corruption, because if the judges stop, corruption will stop. If the judges are doing the right thing and they do the actual thing, the politicians will not carry money to them to influence the judgement.
“But what they are supposed to do they don’t do. They just turn a good case upside down and cite technical lockout to enable them to eat the money they were given to influence the judgement.”
Olori, a prominent chief of the Ughelli Kingdom, appealed to judicial workers as the country headed into the 2023 polls to look at cases from the exercise on their merit so as to unite and deepen the country’s democracy.
The elder statesman posited that the judiciary has a great role to play in uniting the country and sustaining her nascent democracy for the betterment of all Nigerians.
“If the judges are sincere and the judiciary is sincere, Nigeria will not have any problems and corruption will not happen. Also, all sorts of malpractices will not happen. They now believe that any person who has money wins the case and that is what the judges are doing. There is no lie about that. They know. The logic that they are using to collect the money is very abnormal to Nigerians.
“The president should stand on his feet and give directives to the judiciary to stand on their feet and make the elections free and fair. Because everything falls back on the judiciary, and the judiciary is ready to turn it upside down more than what has happened”, he added.
