Judges in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Monday abandoned
their various duty posts to protest last weekend’s arrest of their
colleagues in different parts of the country on allegations of
corruption.
The
Department of State Security (DSS), which carried out the arrests,
claimed to have found incriminating documents and foreign currencies in
the homes of the affected judicial officers.
The journalists who
besieged the Magistrate court located at the Life Camp in Abuja as
early as 8:00 am to cover the arraignment of the arrested judges waited
endlessly as the case neither came up nor did the judges appear.
It
was gathered that some of the judges boycotted the courtroom in
solidarity with their colleagues, and were attending a meeting at the
FCT High Court in Maitamawhere a position will be taken either to
declare a total boycott of the courts or to maintain a neutral posture
in the matter.
One of the lawyers who spoke to journalists,
Princewell Ebubedike berated the action of the judges saying it would
amount to aiding and abetting corruption in the judiciary, which is the
last hope of the common man, thereby eroding public confidence in the
justice system. He condemned the manner in which the security agents
made their arrests without proper recourse to procedure.