The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has described allegations making the rounds against the country’s judiciary as cheap blackmail.
Fagbemi appealed to politicians who lost out at the election not to throw caution to the wind.
He also urged them to stop making unfounded insinuations against the judges, adding that anybody who has concrete evidence against any judge should feel free to bring forth such evidence.
Fagbemi spoke with reporters in his Ijagbo, Oyun Local Government Area of Kwara State’s country home on the sidelines of a prayer organised in his honour on Friday.
He said, “You lost at the tribunal, you lost at the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court yet you are insinuating foul play. I think even apart from law, morality also demands that you take the outcome as it is.
“I am not saying that judges cannot be wrong because they are human beings. Where anybody sees or feels that the course of justice has been perverted, feel free to bring it forth rather than making unfounded insinuations.
“Unless you can bring forth concrete evidence, I will not succumb to blackmail. Nobody will shield an erring judge.
“One thing about justice is that the man who wins will praise the judgment. The person who loses will never agree that he has lost fairly unless you give him the judgment.
“Don’t forget, when you make unfounded insinuations, you are dragging the name of the nation in the mud.”
He urged “all and sundry to imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship.”
Speaking at the venue of the prayer session organised by his siblings and the entire Fagbemis, the minister enjoined Nigerians to give President Bola Tinubu a chance to turn around the fortunes of the country.
He added that Tinubu is not looking at the immediate benefits of his efforts but long-term benefits.
“That is why I appeal to all and sundry to give him the chance.
“He is a man who is ready to do the thing. It takes a while to see the full effect of his efforts.
“He is not the one who created these problems in Nigeria, but he is not complaining. President Tinubu is somebody who wants to work. He is prepared to do the job. He is not somebody who is just learning the job. He has done it before in Lagos State. I am not equating Lagos with Nigeria.
“Immediately after his swearing in he has been all out to seek investors’ buy-in. As a result, positive responses have been trailing his discussions with foreign investors. The only thing we need is to exercise some patience. Even if you plant a tree, it won’t grow into fruition until after a while,” he said.
On judiciary reforms, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria revealed that he had used the platform of the Nigerian Governors Forum to make the governors come on board.
He added that the Federal Government would also engage judges at both Federal and state government levels.
He said “What I have done is to seek the platform of NGF to address all the governors in Nigeria as to what they are required to do if anything is being done a the level of the Federal Government. “We expect that the state within their limited resources will let into it.
“Another thing is that we need to engage the judges. Because it is one thing to make laws, it is another thing to administer them.
“We also need to engage the chief judges, especially at the state level. We need to embark on uniformity without necessarily turning the country into a unitary system.”
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