Over 250 constitutional and human rights lawyers under the aegis of the Judicial Integrity Lawyers have called on the National Judicial Council to direct courts in Nigeria to disregard cases brought before them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
As part of the resolutions reached by the lawyers at the end of their annual conference, with the theme: “Democracy and the Rule of Law,” held in Abuja between March 20 and 21, 202, the lawyers said it would only be appropriate for Nigerian courts to entertain EFCC cases when the commission’s Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, must have purged himself of contempt by obeying subsisting court orders binding on him.
The group’s newly elected President, Godwin Idoko, in a communiqué on Tuesday, said the body did not consider Bawa fit to continue presiding over the affairs of a law enforcement agency, especially one constitutionally set up to fight corruption
Idoko stated in the communiqué that the body noted that a country that had no regard for court decisions was heading towards anarchy.
Idoko said, “We are stating that a country that has no regard for the decisions of its court is heading toward anarchy. Hence, we call on the National Judicial Council to direct courts in the country to henceforth not entertain any cases brought before it by any agency of the government that disobeys court orders, especially EFCC, until its Chairman, Mr AbdulRasheed Bawa, has purged himself by obeying all subsisting court orders binding on him.
“As an official whose conviction was made by an order of a court or courts of competent jurisdiction, we do not consider him fit to continue presiding over the affairs of a law enforcement agency, especially one constitutionally set up to fight corruption. You cannot use the corrupting influence of power to enforce anti-corruption laws.
“We consider it a ridiculous aberration that a convict would be in charge of getting others convicted when he should be serving time for contempt of court and when there has been no superior judgment against the conviction.”
Idoko in the communiqué also advised politicians against sponsoring crises across the nation to ventilate grievances, saying that sponsoring post-election crises would negate the supremacy clause of the country’s constitution as stated in Section 1(2) of the 1999 Constitution.
Besides, the lawyers observed that the timing of the conference was of great importance, considering the fact that the nation was still battling with the fallout of the various elections, adding that many salient issues regarding the place of the rule of law in Nigeria’s “struggling democracy” had been thrown up.
The communiqué stated, “Recall that it took the direct intervention of (the) President (Major General)Muhammadu Buhari (retd) for the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to obey a lawful judgment of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, on the naira redesign policy of the CBN. This was after the flagrant disobedience to the preliminary judgment of the same Supreme Court before the presidential elections were held.
“Even now, our meeting agreed that the Federal Government has not fully complied with the judgment with regard to other aspects of the policy, which has continued to put Nigerians through untold hardship.
“Our over 250 members have therefore urged President Muhammadu Buhari to, within the limited time left in the life of his administration, urgently address the dangerous culture of disobedience to the rule of law, assault on our judiciary and ultimately ensure appropriate sanctions for the violators of the dictates of our constitution.’’
About 25 lawyers, representing the six geopolitical zones of the country, jointly presented the communiqué on behalf of the over 250 lawyers in JILAW.
