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| Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen |
In the war against corruption, the buck stops with the judiciary and unless the
third arm of government buys into it, all efforts to emancipate the
country from the shackles of corruption would be hopeless.
Hope may, however, be on the way as the National Judicial Council, seeming to have heard the President’s and Nigerians’ cries, few weeks ago, announced the introduction of certain drastic measures to curb excesses of lawyers and remove factors that cause delay in criminal trials.
As announced by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, who is the Chairman of the NJC, on the occasion of the special court session heralding the 2017/2018 Legal Year, heads of various courts had been directed to dedicate certain courts solely to the hearing of corruption cases.
Justice Onnoghen said, “We, in the judiciary, are fully aware and in fact worried by concerns expressed by members of the public on the very slow speed with which corruption cases in particular are being heard or determined by our courts.
“Although the Administration of Criminal Justice Act contains many commendable provisions aimed at speeding up the process of criminal prosecution generally, it is clear that we still need to employ more strategies to support and strengthen this law in fast-tracking the criminal justice system.
“In this regard, we have directed all Heads of Courts to compile and forward to the National Judicial Council, comprehensive lists of all corruption and financial crime cases being handled by their various courts.
“They have been directed to designate, in their various jurisdictions, one or more courts, depending on the volume of such cases, as Special Courts solely for the purpose of hearing and speedily determining corruption and financial crime cases.
“Where such cases come on appeal, to either the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court, special dates on each week, shall be fixed solely for hearing and determining such appeals.”
Furthermore, the NJC announced the inauguration of an Anti-corruption Cases Trial Monitoring Committee to routinely visit such special courts, observe the conduct of judges and lawyers to determine if they are keying into and abiding by “our renewed efforts at ridding our country of the cankerworm.”
The CJN said it would no longer be business as usual for defence lawyers whose stock-in-trade is delaying corruption cases.
He said, “Any judicial officer found wanting would be dealt with decisively, and shown the way out swiftly.
“Members of the Bar are, therefore, enjoined to shun all tactics and ploys which constitute clogs in the seemingly slow-winding wheels of justice so that they do not come to a grinding halt.
“In this regard, we have just directed heads of courts to clamp down on both prosecution and defence counsel who indulge in the unethical practice of deploying delay tactics to stall criminal trials.
“Heads of courts are now to report such cases to the NJC, which, in turn, would transmit them to the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, in the case of Senior Advocates, and Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee in the case of other legal practitioners.
“To further improve the administration of justice, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, the Practice Directions as well as the Rules of Court should be complied with.
“I have also observed the practice by members of the Bar wherein a lead counsel appears before the courts in representation of a client with as many as a hundred and even more lawyers.
“We have issued a directive, which should extend to other courts, that lawyers appearing in the Supreme Court should not be more than five for each party, including the lead counsel in order to avoid waste of time and space in the courtroom.”
These deliberate initiatives have been widely applauded.
Sagay described them as “a leap forward in the anti-corruption war,” noting that, judicial hostility is fatal to the country’s anti-graft war.
It is hoped that the sincere implementation of these initiatives will mark the end of the road for the legion of unresolved high-profile corruption cases littering courts across the country.
It is hoped that these efforts would launch the country out of the dark era where the corrupt escape retribution and continue to dominate the nation’s political space with impunity.
In this article:
Hope may, however, be on the way as the National Judicial Council, seeming to have heard the President’s and Nigerians’ cries, few weeks ago, announced the introduction of certain drastic measures to curb excesses of lawyers and remove factors that cause delay in criminal trials.
As announced by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, who is the Chairman of the NJC, on the occasion of the special court session heralding the 2017/2018 Legal Year, heads of various courts had been directed to dedicate certain courts solely to the hearing of corruption cases.
Justice Onnoghen said, “We, in the judiciary, are fully aware and in fact worried by concerns expressed by members of the public on the very slow speed with which corruption cases in particular are being heard or determined by our courts.
“Although the Administration of Criminal Justice Act contains many commendable provisions aimed at speeding up the process of criminal prosecution generally, it is clear that we still need to employ more strategies to support and strengthen this law in fast-tracking the criminal justice system.
“In this regard, we have directed all Heads of Courts to compile and forward to the National Judicial Council, comprehensive lists of all corruption and financial crime cases being handled by their various courts.
“They have been directed to designate, in their various jurisdictions, one or more courts, depending on the volume of such cases, as Special Courts solely for the purpose of hearing and speedily determining corruption and financial crime cases.
“Where such cases come on appeal, to either the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court, special dates on each week, shall be fixed solely for hearing and determining such appeals.”
Furthermore, the NJC announced the inauguration of an Anti-corruption Cases Trial Monitoring Committee to routinely visit such special courts, observe the conduct of judges and lawyers to determine if they are keying into and abiding by “our renewed efforts at ridding our country of the cankerworm.”
The CJN said it would no longer be business as usual for defence lawyers whose stock-in-trade is delaying corruption cases.
He said, “Any judicial officer found wanting would be dealt with decisively, and shown the way out swiftly.
“Members of the Bar are, therefore, enjoined to shun all tactics and ploys which constitute clogs in the seemingly slow-winding wheels of justice so that they do not come to a grinding halt.
“In this regard, we have just directed heads of courts to clamp down on both prosecution and defence counsel who indulge in the unethical practice of deploying delay tactics to stall criminal trials.
“Heads of courts are now to report such cases to the NJC, which, in turn, would transmit them to the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, in the case of Senior Advocates, and Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee in the case of other legal practitioners.
“To further improve the administration of justice, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, the Practice Directions as well as the Rules of Court should be complied with.
“I have also observed the practice by members of the Bar wherein a lead counsel appears before the courts in representation of a client with as many as a hundred and even more lawyers.
“We have issued a directive, which should extend to other courts, that lawyers appearing in the Supreme Court should not be more than five for each party, including the lead counsel in order to avoid waste of time and space in the courtroom.”
These deliberate initiatives have been widely applauded.
Sagay described them as “a leap forward in the anti-corruption war,” noting that, judicial hostility is fatal to the country’s anti-graft war.
It is hoped that the sincere implementation of these initiatives will mark the end of the road for the legion of unresolved high-profile corruption cases littering courts across the country.
It is hoped that these efforts would launch the country out of the dark era where the corrupt escape retribution and continue to dominate the nation’s political space with impunity.
In this article: