A human rights activist and Executive Chairman, Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman, has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the Department of State Services (DSS) to follow the due process of law over the ongoing arrest and investigation of some Judges over allegations of corrupt.
He condemned the brigandage and manner in which the affected Judges were arrested by operatives of the DSS in the early hour of Saturday, stressing that “The action of the operatives of State Security Service in arresting the affected Judges is totally condemnable and unacceptable; they should not be treated like common criminal when there are procedures to be followed by security agents.”
Comrade Sulaiman, however, praised the Federal Government under the watch of Buhari for taking the bull by the horn in cleansing of the judiciary, which is the last hope of common man, from corrupt practices.
In a statement issued on Sunday the rights activist disclosed that nobody should be seen to be above the law and that the arrested public officials should be dealt with, according to the laws of the land. He alleged that the level of corruption in the judicial sector under the watch of the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Muhammed Mahmud, speaks volume, adding that President Buhari should set up an unbiased independent panel of inquiry with the international best practices, to investigate the administration of Justice Mahmud as Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman, National Judicial Council (NJC).
Sulaiman, who doubles as Chairman, Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS), recalled that Justice Mahmud as Chairman of the apex judicial body in the land, tactically eased out Justice Olamide Folahanmi Oloyede from the bench, “for exposing the corrupt practices of a sitting governor through a petition as a private citizen to the State House of Assembly.
He described Justice Oloyede as “a prophet of truth, courage and justice and also a woman of great character and intellectual prowess, who sacrificed the comfort of her office to expose Rauf Aregbesola’s government corrupt inclination.” He advised Buhari not to limit his anti-corruption crusade to the Federal High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Judges alone but to extend the crusade to States High Court Judges who he claimed “had been in the habit of highest bidders to get their judgment.”
He then urged President Buhari to revisit Justice Oloyede’s matter and use his good office to return her to the bench in order to help his anti-corruption crusade in the country. The CHRSJ boss maintained that the menace of corruption in Nigeria should be dealt with frontally according to the laid down rules and regulations, saying that corruption has been the canker worm that has eaten deep into the fabric of the judicial system.
According to him; “The level of corruption in our judicial sector had been enormous to the extent that common man does not believe in the court process again as the last hope of common man because the court judgments are not meant for lower class of the society but for highest bidders. President Buhari should not encourage the brigandage approach of the men of the Department of State Service (DSS) in the fight against corruption because we are in a democracy and civilised society.
•Photo shows Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman.
