Arrest of Judges: I'm not a dictator - Buhari

10-10-2016 

President Muhammadu Bu­hari on Sunday declared that the arrest of some judg­es in commando-like raids by se­curity forces a day earlier did not make him a dictator as his fight is against corruption in the country and not the judiciary.

The President said that even as he pursues this crusade, he re­serves his highest respect for the judiciary as the third arm of gov­ernment, and would not do any­thing to undermine its independ­ence.

According to a statement is­sued last night by his spokes­man, Garba Shehu, the president stressed that he remained a com­mitted democrat, in words and in his actions, and will not take any action in violation of the consti­tution.

The statement explained that “the recent surgical operation against some judicial officers is specifically targeted at corrup­tion and not at the judiciary as an institution.

“In a robust democracy such as ours, there is bound to be a plu­rality of opinions on any given is­sue, but there is a convergence of views that the country has a cor­ruption problem that needs to be corrected.”

Buhari frowned at the man­ner a section of the media had reported the developments as if there was a battle between the ex­ecutive and judicial arms of gov­ernment.

“Reports by a section of the media are giving us cause for con­cern. In undertaking the task of reporting, the media should be careful about the fault lines they open.

“It is wrong to present this in­cident as a confrontation between the executive and judicial arms of government”, Shehu pointed out.

Concerning misgivings about the manner of the invasion by the Department of State Servic­es (DSS), Buhari said he was ad­equately assured that necessary search and arrest warrants were properly obtained for the oper­ations which lasted from Friday night into the wee hours of Sat­urday.

According to Shehu, “the Presidency has received assur­ances from the DSS that all due processes of the law, including the possession of search and ar­rest warrants were obtained be­fore the searches.

“To suggest that the govern­ment is acting outside the law in a dictatorial manner is to breach the interest of the state.”

But criticisms on Sunday trailed the Saturday’s invasion of the residences and arrest of two Supreme Court justices and judg­es of the Federal High Court by the Department of State Servic­es (DSS).

While the opposition Peo­ples Democratic Party (PDP) described the DSS’ action as a “gradual descent of the President Muhammadu Buhari administra­tion into fascism and autocracy,” a constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozek­home (SAN), said it was danger­ous for the country’s democracy.

The PDP said that the action had exposed President Buha­ri’s desire to kill democracy and convert it to an autocracy with­out checks and balances.

In a statement by its spokes­man, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the PDP said: “This invasion is the lat­est in a series of actions taken by the President Muhammadu Bu­hari administration which re­veal its disregard for the rule of law and its abject disdain for the principle of separation of powers.

“This inexorable slide into fascism began with the invasion of the Akwa Ibom State Gov­ernment House by the self-same DSS, the continued detention of several people despite courts or­dering their release, the invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assem­bly and detention of Hon. Akan­ni Afolabi and the invasion of the Zamfara State House of Assembly.

“This slide into fascism has included a sustained attack on the leadership of the Nation­al Assembly as President Buhari has sought to break its independ­ence and make it a rubber stamp to suit his will.”

The party said that the affect­ed Justices of the Supreme Court were Sylvanus Ngwuta and In­yang Okoro while the affected judges of the Federal High Court were Muazu Pindiga, Adeniyi Ademola, Abdullahi Liman and Nnamdi Dimgba.

On the position of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and how judges should be disciplined, the party said that Section 153(1)(i) and Part 1 of the Third Sched­ule of the Constitution established the National Judicial Council (NJC) and empowers it to con­trol and discipline judges across the country.

Onslaught against the judi­ciary, dangerous - Ozekhome

In his reaction, Ozekhome said that the onslaught on the Ju­diciary signalled great danger to the country’s hard-won democra­cy, freedom, liberties and human rights, independence of the Judi­ciary and the doctrine of separa­tion of powers ably espoused in 1748 by the great French philos­opher, Baron De Montesquieu.

Ozekhome said that the last time he checked, Nigeria was sup­posed to be operating a “consti­tutional democracy, not military dictatorship or tyrannical abso­lutism.”

He decried the maltreatment of Governor Wike by gun-totting DSS and Police operatives in Port Harcourt led by the Director and Commissioner of Police, respec­tively.

Ozekhome said that Wike’s “offence” was that he came to res­cue a Federal High Court judge who was being abducted in “Ka­mikaze Gestapo style,” adding that “other serving judges who would ordinarily respond to a mere phone call are being humil­iated and rounded up in the un­godly wee hours of the night, like common criminals.”

The rights activist said he was not surprised by the devel­opment.

According to him, “some of us warned, wrote, preached, talked, but, we were maximally ignored due to political partisan­ship. A leopard cannot change its spots. Welcome, full blown dicta­torship and fascism that are now here with us.

“It started with political op­ponents and opposition. Some of us cried out. Many gloated with éclat and a sense of victory at op­ponents’ horrific travails. Then, they moved against some very senior and well respected lawyers being rubbished. Some clapped. They said it was anti-corruption. We cried out. It extended quickly to the National Assembly, anoth­er different arm of government.

“Many hailed the government as tough, no-nonsense and anti-corruption- inclined. Some of us warned. Now, the Judiciary, up to the very apex court of the land, the Supreme Court, has been tar­geted and is now being intimidat­ed, humiliated and annexed. The incoming Chief Justice of Nigeria is said to be profiled. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. Virtual­ly all the judges are southerners,” he said.

Meanwhile, Governor Wike and the DSS yesterday sang dis­cordant tunes over alleged move­ment by the governor of $2 mil­lion from 35 Forces Avenue Port Harcourt residence of a Feder­al High Court Judge, Justice Mu­hammed Liman, in the early hours of Saturday.

In a statement issued in Abuja by Abdullahi Garba of the DSS, he said the Service action “is in line with its core mandate as we have been monitoring the expensive and luxury lifestyle of some of the judges as well as complaints from the concerned public over judgment obtained fraudulently on the basis of amounts of mon­ey paid…”

The statement read in part: “In one of the states where the Service operations were con­ducted credible intelligence re­vealed that the judge had ($2mil­lion stashed in his house.

“When he (judge) was ap­proached for due search to be conducted, he in concert with the state governor, mobilised thugs against the Service team.

“The team restrained itself in the face of unbridled provocative activities by those brought in by the governor.

“Unfortunately, the judge and the governor engaged the tacit support of a sister security agen­cy,” he said.