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No fewer than 250 constitutional and human rights lawyers have called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) to direct all courts in Nigeria not to entertain cases brought before them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Rising from their two-day snnual conference, with the theme: “Democracy and the Rule of Law,” held in Abuja, the lawyers said it would be good for the country’s judiciary to entertain EFCC cases only when the anti-graft agency’s chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, obeys all subsisting court orders binding on him.
Unfolding a communique from the conference yesterday, the lawyers called on political parties in the country and their candidates to be conscious of the need to preserve democracy by adhering to the provisions of the law guiding post-election matters.
Reading the communique with 25 lawyers, representing the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, on behalf of the over 250 lawyers in JILAW, newly elected President of the Judicial Integrity Lawyers (JILAW), Barrister Idoko Godwin, said: “Politicians were advised against sponsoring crises across the nation to demonstrate their grievance as sponsoring post-election crisis will negate the supremacy clause of our constitution as stated in Section 1(2) of the 1999 Constitution.
“Rather, every aggrieved individual or groups of individuals who wish to govern Nigeria or any part thereof should give total consideration to Section 1(2) of the 1999 Constitution and anything to the contrary will amount to subversion of the supreme law of the land. Thus any aggrieved individual should seek judicial redress as enshrined in the constitution.”
The lawyers observed that the timing of the conference was of great importance, considering the fact that the nation was still battling with the fallout of the various elections, adding that many salient issues regarding the place of the rule of law in Nigeria’s democracy had been thrown up.
They noted that the persistent abuse of power by public officials was an aberration, which had attained notoriety as part of the fabric of the Nigerian society, insisting that equality before the law was the only true protection against the spectre of oppression and undue influence that those in positions of authority would otherwise dangle over the heads of ordinary Nigerians.
The communique stated: “You will recall that it took the direct intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari for the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to obey a lawful judgement of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, on the naira redesign policy of the CBN. This was after the flagrant disobedience to the preliminary judgement of the same Supreme Court before the presidential elections were held.
“Even now, our meeting agreed that the Federal Government has not fully complied with the judgement with regard to other aspects of the policy, which has continued to put Nigerians through untold hardship.”
On the EFCC boss, the lawyers said: “Our over 250 members have therefore urged President Muhammadu Buhari to, within the limited time left in the life of his administration, urgently address the dangerous culture of disobedience to the rule of law, assault on ourjudiciary and ultimately ensure appropriate sanctions for the violators of the dictates of our constitution.”
The lawyers said that any country where people have no regard to the decisions of its court “is heading toward anarchy. Hence, we call on the National Judicial Council to direct all courts in the country to henceforth not entertain any cases brought before them by any agency of the government that disobeys court orders, especially EFCC.”
The lawyers seized the opportunity to present their new leaders who emerged after JILAW election held on Monday. They are, Barrister Idoko Godwin, President; Barr. Suleiman Gwamba, Vice President; Barr. Gaius Inalegwu, Secretary; Barr. Genesis John, Publicity Secretary; and Barr. Ann Ikwuta Onyeke, Welfare Officer, among others.
