The Federal Government on Wednesday said it was not unusual to step on sensitive toes in its current fight against corruption.
The Minister of Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in an interview with State House
correspondents at the end of a meeting of the Federal Executive Council
presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja.
Mohammed was reacting to the outrage
that had been trailing the recent arrests of judges and raids on their
homes by officials of the Department of State Services.
While asking Nigerians to separate
emotions from facts, the minister advised that the fight against
corruption should not be mistaken for a fight against the judiciary.
He insisted that the arrests of the
judges were carried out within the ambit of the law since they (the
judges)did not have immunity against investigation and prosecution.
Mohammed said the fact that about 11 of
the President’s ministers were lawyers out of which about five had
Senior Advocates of Nigeria’s titles showed that Buhari had a lot of
respect for the judiciary.
Mohammed added that the fact that the
President took the cases of his three failed attempts to become the
President before the judiciary also demonstrated that he had a lot of
respect for that arm of government.
The minister said, “Do not confuse the
fight against corruption as a fight against the judiciary. What the
government is concerned and passionate about is to fight corruption.
“In the process of fighting corruption,
it is not unusual that you step on some very sensitive toes but the
question to ask and I think this has been adequately answered by the
Attorney General is that let’s remove emotion from facts.
“One, do judges have immunity? The
answer is no. Can judges be arrested? The answer is yes. Have judges
that are serving been arrested in Nigeria? The answer is yes. Justice
Okoli had been arrested and tried.
“Now, the next question to ask is, what
is the proper procedure for arresting anybody including judges? There
must be a properly acquired search warrant. Was such presented? The
answer again is yes.
“People have tried to muddle the facts
about when do you search the person’s house. The truth of the matter is
that under the new criminal justice law, you can search anybody,
anywhere, anytime.
“Again, they have tried to muddle issues
by trying to say that the NJC is the only authority that can attend to
complaints and discipline. The answer once again is no.
“When a judge is accused of professional
misconduct is quite different from what is happening now. If you
suspect anybody including governors who have immunity, they are still
subject to investigations. So, I want to make it clear, this government
has the highest respect for judiciary and we are not in any way trying
to ridicule the judiciary.”
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