Deal With Corruption In The Judiciary, CJN Tells FG
By Ogbolu George
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, has advised the Federal Government to deal with the corruption in the judiciary in line with the rule of law.
Justice Walter Onnoghen was confirmed as the CJN on Wednesday by the senate.
He, however, said that no judge could give justice when presented with shoddy investigation and prosecution of corruption cases by the executive.
“When you’re dealing with judicial corruption when one exists, you’ve to do it in accordance with the rule of law, and then channel whatever you have through the appropriate channels so that you don’t destroy that institution because destroying it will not make any good. It’ll do it more harm than good.
“When you have a shoddily investigated case, poorly executed one and you expect the judge who is under judicial oath to do justice to all manner of persons without fear of favour or ill will, to respect you in balancing the scale, to convict willingly, this can never be done. I can assure you of that. No judicial officer will get himself involved in that.
“I’ve gone through all the heads of court in this country, federal and state courts, and they furnished me with data on EFCC, ICPC, terrorism cases and high-profile information cases…Funny enough, no applications are abandoned in the court,” Onnoghen said.
He regretted that the judiciary was being painted as if it were not doing enough in the prosecution of corruption cases.
