Remove Regular Judges From Election Matters and create ‘Special Electoral Court to reduce corruption’ — Civil Societies urges FG
This was according to a joint report released on Sunday by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, the Civil Liberties Organisation, the Coalition of Human Rights and Democracy Organisation and Ekwenche Research Institute, USA
Acoalition of civil society organisations has advocated for the immediate establishment of “Special Electoral Court” and the removal of regular court judges from election matters in order to reduce corruption in the Nigerian judicial sector.
This was according to a joint report released on Sunday by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, the Civil Liberties Organisation, the Coalition of Human Rights and Democracy Organisation and Ekwenche Research Institute, USA.
According to the report, the involvement of regular court judicial officers in electoral matters has become a conduit pipe for judicial officers’ corruption and beyond-the-law lifestyles in Nigeria over the last 20 years, and removing them from electoral courts in Nigeria would reduce judicial officers’ corruption by 70%.
The statement partly read, “It is most sacrilegious for judicial officers to desecrate the electoral decisions and choices of members of the voting population through “the magic of judicial technicalities”. Cases in point are in Plateau, Zamfara and Kano where Governors and dozens of opposition lawmakers across the country; popularly chosen by majority of the voters have been pronounced ousted on technicalities and instructions of the powers that be. Voters, no matter their parties or faiths or tribes, must be allowed to choose their leaders.
“Breakthroughs recorded against corrupt public officers and institutions in Nigeria were gravely damaged from 2010 when Dr Goodluck Jonathan became a replacement President. He had grown under the political tutelage of former Bayelsa Governor and court-declared corrupt public office holder, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha whom he deputised from 1999-2005.
It must also be remembered that the gateway into judicial officers’ corruption in recent Nigeria was the “Alu-Gate”/“Salami-Gate” of 2010/2011. As at 2003, electoral matters contributed about only 15% of judicial officers’ corruption and rose to about 20% in 2009; 30% in 2010/2011 and about 40% as at June 2015. From July 2015 under Retired Major Gen Muhammad Buhari and Prof Yemi Osinbajo central Government, electoral matters skyrocketed judicial officers’ corruption to 70% till this November 2023.
Involvement of regular court judges in electoral matters (both pre and post electoral matters) has been found to have entrenched intractable corruption among judicial officers; to the extent that “Magistrates now scramble for inclusion in electoral courts despite not being “Judicial Officers of Record”. The involvement of regular court judges have also reshaped the lifestyles of the judicial officers and elevated them to “larger than life lifestyles” and made them highly vulnerable to DSS security checks during which it is very difficult to find many of them living within their statutory remunerations including salaries and allowances and commensurate lifestyles. The above is to the extent that, some say, out of every five judicial officers said to have been scrutinized by DSS or spy others, they are hard to be found living within their lawful remunerations and lifestyles.
It has been investigated and found that the involvement of regular court judicial officers in electoral matters has become a conduit pipe for judicial officers’ corruption and beyond the law lifestyles in Nigeria in the past 20 years and if they are removed from electoral courts in Nigeria, it will cut down judicial officers’ corruption by 70%. Time has also come for professionalization and departmentalisation of the Judiciary.
There shall be ‘Special Electoral Courts” under two-three-step arrangements; to be manned by reputable legal practitioners with at least ten years in the Bar and backgrounds in electoral and human rights laws and constitutionalism. Their tenure shall be a five year single tenure. The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee and the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee of the NBA and the NJC shall be empowered to ensure such appointments to be accordingly approved by the National Assembly.
There shall also be established “Criminal Courts” and “Civil Litigation Courts” in Nigeria; with the former manned by legal experts (jurists) in Criminal Laws, Penology, Victimology, Juvenile Laws, Criminology (including Criminal Statistics and Pathology) and their likes.”
