The National Judicial Council (NJC) will on Tuesday, October 11, hold an emergency session following the raids on the houses of some judicial officers by the men of the Department of State Services over the weekend.
Although the meeting was originally scheduled to consider the candidate most suitable for appointment as the next Chief Justice of Nigeria, from a list forwarded to it by the Federal Judicial Service Commission last week, report has it that the outgoing CJN and the chairman of both the NJC and FJSC, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, has directed that the DSS raids be included on the agenda of the meeting.
According to The Punch, Justice Mohammed was said to have been embarrassed by the developments, and immediately put a call through to vice-president Yemi Osinbajo and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
A source told The Punch on Sunday, October 9, that: “The CJN decided that the NJC would take a position on the issue at the emergency meeting of the NJC already scheduled to hold on Tuesday for the consideration of the next CJN.”
On Friday night, security operatives raided the Abuja residences of Justices Sylvester Ngwuta, John Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court, and whisked them away. Share on FacebookShare on Twitter They also picked Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja at his Apo Legislative Quarters home and searched the house of another Abuja Federal High Court Judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba. In Gombe, the operatives whisked away Justice Mu’azu Pindiga of the state High Court.
According to a senior officer of the security agency, Abdullahi Garba, a large amount including foreign/local currencies had been recovered from three of the judges. He gave the breakdown of these to include: N93,558,000.00, $530,087, £25,970, and €5,680 (a total of over N270m).
The scheduled meeting of the NJC, comes after the council had condemned the raid on the residences of the judicial officers. Speaking through Soji Oye, acting director, media and publicity, the NJC condemned the act, saying the DSS operatives could not have invaded the houses of the senior judges without an authenticated order which would have warranted their arrest.
The president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud (SAN), also asked the federal government to immediately release judges arrested. Mahmud made the call yesterday while addressing newsmen at a press conference in Lagos state.