16th
January, 2019
PRESS RELEASE:
MURIC
HIGHLIGHTS THE DANGER IN JUDICIAL CORRUPTION
The Islamic human rights organization highlighted the dangers in a statement released on Wednesday, 16th January, 2019. The statement was signed by its director and founder, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
“Judicial corruption
fuels impunity. It is the worst type of corruption because that is where we go
when the system is corrupt. Any nation whose judicial system is led by corrupt
judges is sitting on the precipice. Judicial corruption should not be tolerated
in any sane society. It corrodes the rule of law. It is a cancerous tumour in
any nation’s anatomy and any surgeon worth the salt will not hesitate to
amputate a cancerous part of the body in order to save the rest.
“Judicial corruption enthrones corrupt politicians in political offices.
It robs hardworking, honest and credible politicians of well-deserved victory
at the polls. Judicial corruption is the deadliest enemy of democracy. It
debilitates the rule of law, renders equal rights unattainable and puts asunder
any dream of an egalitarian society. Judiciary is the last hope of the common man and a corrupt
judge dashes the hope of the ordinary citizen.
“A corrupt judiciary poses the most potent threat to crime
fighters like policemen, anti-corruption agencies, anti-graft activists, human
rights activists, etc. The efforts of these patriotic elements who put their
lives on the line for the sake of society will be in vain if the judiciary is
corrupt. Corrupt judges frustrate the efforts of crime fighters. A corrupt judiciary
emboldens criminals and corrupt people as they always know that they can bribe
their way out in court.
“Nobody can wipe out corruption where the judiciary itself
is enmeshed in dirty deals. It is like pouring water inside a basket in an
attempt to fill it up. A hundred bucketfuls cannot achieve that. That is why
MURIC is sounding this note of warning. Allow FG to handle the case of the CJN
now before it infects the whole system.
“Something is
wrong with us as a people if we want to defend a chief judge who made five
different cash deposits of $10,000 each into Standard Chartered Bank Account
1062650 on 8th March 2011; made two separate cash deposits of $5000 each on 7th
June 2011 followed by four cash deposits of $10,000 each on the same day. Again
on 27th June 2011, Justice Onnoghen made another set of five separate cash
deposits of $10,000 each and made four more cash deposits of $10,000 each on the
following day, 28th June 2011. Are the rest of us who are poor Nigerians created
to shine his shoes and lick his boots?
“MURIC is concerned because Islam abhors materialism. What
is a judge doing with so much money when 80 million fellow citizens are
wallowing in abject penury? Can we take any accumulated wealth to the grave? Do
we know when our time will be up? Where are those before us who stole all the
milk and honey in the land?
The Muslim Rights Concern is concerned because even if
all public office holders are accumulating wealth unjustly, the chief judge of
the land must be above board like Caesar’s wife. The Qur’an says all the wealth
in this world cannot make a man live forever (104:1-9; 102:1-8). Umar bin
Khattab insisted that governors appointed by him must declare their assets
immediately they are appointed and immediately after leaving office.
All these are
allegations made in the petition written against him by a lawyer human rights
activist and instead of the judge to deny them he claims to have forgotten to
declare them in his asset declaration. If ignorance of the law is no excuse,
what do we call this claim of forgetfulness made by the numero uno lawman of
the federation? Justice Onnoghen should resign
immediately if there is any decency left in him.
This is definitely not the ideal symbol of justice a nation
can be proud of. We are making a mockery of the bench if high-ranking lawyers
bend over backwards to defend the indefensible in this case. We seem to be
unable to face the truth in this society. Other countries are making progress
by punishing corrupt judges. Who did this to Nigeria?
“In China, Huang Songyou, a former
Chinese supreme court judge was jailed for life after being convicted of
embezzlement and receiving nearly £500,000 in bribes. Another judge, Wang Suyi was sentenced to fifteen
years in prison for bribery. Indonesia's corruption court sentenced one of the country's top judges to
eight years in prison for taking bribes in January 2017.
“In Pakistan, a five-member
panel of judges ruled that Justice Patrialis Akbar was
guilty of receiving thousands of dollars from a meat importer to influence the
outcome of a judicial review of the law on animal husbandry. Mark
Ciavarella, a corrupt judge in the United States was sent to 28 years in June
2018 for selling kids to private prisons while Munir Patel, an ordinary British
court clerk was sentenced to four years in prison in 2011 for receiving £100,000
bribe because Britain will not stomach corruption in its criminal justice
system.
“The choice is ours, whether to deal decisively with
corrupt judges in order to instill discipline in the judiciary or to allow tribal
jingoism, acrobatic religiousity and articulated political sentiment to override
our objectivity.
For the avoidance of doubts, we assert clearly,
categorically and unequivocally that MURIC will continue to support this regime
not because the president is a Muslim (he is not the only Muslim candidate
anyway) or because of his political leaning but because the president has
unassailable integrity and because this is the only regime that has made
fighting corruption its cardinal focus.
“We are also not unaware of the personal risks involved,
they are simply part of the hazards of human rights activism. We are prepared to
do even more in the interest of our dear country and in defense of Allah-given
fundamental human rights of Nigerian Muslims and the rest of its citizens.
On a last note,
we reiterate that Justice Onnoghen is a clog in the wheel of justice. Wailers
should allow the law to take its due course. It is most dangerous for Nigeria
to approach a general election with a jaundiced judicial system. The Nigerian
people have lost confidence in him. He should resign without delay”.
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
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