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LequteMan
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Chairman, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), on Monday blamed the rot in the nation’s judiciary on underfunding and bribing of judges by members of the public.
According to PUNCH, he said this while delivering the 2013 edition of the Annual Lecture of the National Association of Judiciary Correspondents, Ikeja Chapter in Lagos titled, ‘53 Years after Independence: The many faces of judicial rot.’
He blamed politicians, businessmen and traditional rulers for the high level of corruption and rot in the judiciary.
“It is this class of persons that bribe, intimidate, harass or influence judges to depart from their sacred oath of office and the path of honour and rectitude.
“A judge who hobnobs with this group may well be unwittingly allowing his position to be compromised and possibly jeopardized.”
Airing his thoughts on the judiciary, he said, “There is no gain saying that an underfunded and financially malnourished judiciary can only breed official corruption in the judiciary and ultimately pose a great hazard to the dispensation of justice and a danger to the polity.
“The funding of the judicial arm of government remained appalling. Official underfunding of the judiciary, 53 years after independence, therefore presents to us the face of judicial rot. It undermines the independence of the judiciary and it makes nonsense of the globally accepted conventions.”
The Chairman, the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, Mr. Monday Ubani, accused lawyers engaged in ‘charge and bail’ activities of corrupting the judiciary workers. He called for the eradication of the category of lawyers for the judiciary to gain reprieve from corruption.
The Chairman of the occasion, Prince Adesegun Ajibola, noted that the judiciary had been experiencing more aberration now than it was under the military.