Contempt: Order courts to reject Bawa’s EFCC cases, over 250 lawyers tell NJC
OVER 250 constitutional and human rights lawyers have urged the National Judicial Council, NJC, to direct all courts in Nigeria not to entertain cases brought before them by Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa.
The lawyers under the aegis of Judicial Intergrity Lawyers, JILAW, said the decision was part of the resolution reached at the end of their Annual Conference, with the theme: “Democracy and the Rule of Law”, held in Abuja.
While bemoaning the spate of impunity seen across the country, the lawyers said cases brought by the EFCC, led by Bawa, could only be entertained if he purged himself of contempt by obeying all subsisting court orders binding on him.
They called on political parties in Nigeria and their candidates to be conscious of the need to preserve Nigeria’s democracy by adhering to the provisions of the law guiding post-election matters.
Reading the communique issued at the end of their meeting, newly elected President of JILAW, Idoko Godwin, said: “Our over 250 members have therefore urged President Muhammadu Buhari to, within the limited time left in the life of his administration, urgently address the dangerous culture of disobedience to the rule of law, assault on our Judiciary and ultimately ensure appropriate sanctions for the violators of the dictates of our constitution.
“We are stating that a country that has no regard to the decisions of its court is heading toward anarchy. Hence, we call on the National Judicial Council to direct all courts in the country to henceforth not entertain cases brought before them by any agency of the government that disobeys court orders, especially EFCC, until Mr. Bawa, has purged himself by obeying all subsisting court orders binding on him.
“As an official whose conviction was made by an order of a court or courts of competent jurisdiction, we do not consider him fit to continue presiding over the affairs of a law enforcement agency, especially one constitutionally set up to fight corruption. You cannot use the corrupting influence of power to enforce anti-corruption laws.
“We consider it a ridiculous aberration that a convict would be in charge of getting others convicted when he should be serving time for contempt of court.”
and when there has been no superior judgement against the conviction.” “You will recall that it took the direct intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari for the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to obey a lawful judgement of the Supreme Court, the highest Court in the land, on the naira redesign policy of the CBN. This was after the flagrant disobedience to the preliminary judgement of the same Supreme Court before the presidential elections were held.
“Even now, our meeting agreed that the Federal Government has not fully complied with the judgement with regard to other aspects of the policy, which has continued to put Nigerians through untold hardship. Vanguard
