No fewer than 15 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, have recently rejected President Muhammadu Buhari’s “10 Billion Naira” offer, to stand in for the Federal Government, to prosecute the alleged corrupt Judges, and Senior Officials of the Supreme Court.
Recall, that the Federal Government is currently prosecuting three Judges, a Chief Registrar, and two other Senior Officials of the Supreme Court, for alleged corruption.
The Judges are: Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court, Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, and Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High, Lagos.
Justices Ngwuta and Ademola, were part of the 8 Judges arrested by the Department of State Services, DSS, on October 8 and 9, for alleged corruption.
Justice Ajumogobia, was however, drilled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before her prosecution commenced.
According a source in the Presidency: “15 SANs have rejected the Federal Government’s briefs, for the prosecution of the Judges.”
The source added: “Part of the Senior Lawyers who rejected the proposed fiat to prosecute, include prominent Senior Lawyers, who are part of the Special Prosecutors, assembled by the Federal Government, through its National Prosecution Coordinating Committee.”
Before now, the Federal Government had through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, set up a National Prosecution Coordinating Committee, which was made of several SANs.
The source also stated, that at least a quarter of the group members were offered the briefs of prosecuting the Judges, but they declined.
Also, some well-recognised prosecutors, who are familiar with handling corruption cases in the country, seem not to be willing to take up the brief.
Some of them have attributed their rejection of the brief, to the fact that the government’s approach is targeted at caging the Judiciary. They however, said that they are willing to defend the Judges in court.
Another source said: “In the absence of Nigerian-based Senior Lawyers, the Federal Government was left with an option of looking elsewhere, and this resulted to government hiring two former International Prosecutors, Segun Jegede, and Charles Adeogun-Philips. The duo have accepted the offer, though the terms of contract are not known.”
Jegede, is leading the prosecution of Justice Ademola, while Adeogun-Philips, heads the prosecuting team with respect to Justice Ngwuta, and the Supreme Court officials’ trials.
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