Tyranny beckons

It would seem that democracy and the rule of law has suffered reversals in Nigeria since May 2015. Several court orders have been disobeyed, persons duly admitted to bail by the courts remain in detention, hundreds if not thousands of sectarian demonstrators were gunned down in Zaria for “blocking a road”, peaceful pro-Biafra demonstrators have been executed in Onitsha and other places in the South-East, bloggers and journalists have been intimidated for exercising their constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of expression and the press, the quality of elections have deteriorated and on numerous occasions security agencies have put people in detention beyond the constitutionally stipulated period often in an attempt to coerce them into admitting to offences, usually allegations of corruption. These abuses have been complemented by a massive deployment of propaganda much of which is later exposed as untruths.

The unfortunate events between Friday night of October 7th and Saturday morning of 8th October 2016 however appear to represent a significant advance towards tyranny in Nigeria! The facts are somewhat clearer though we have been inundated with only one side of the story-information and possible mis-information from the Department of State Security (DSS) and its agents. The fact that many Nigerians, including some who were trained as lawyers, are prepared to “convict” judicial officers of “corruption” on the evidence of only one party-the DSS, has shaken my confidence in our appreciation and understanding of democracy, constitutionalism and the rule of law even though it unfortunately also illustrates how low confidence in the legal profession and judiciary sunk in the minds of our people, due to corruption and/or perceived corruption amongst lawyers and judges.

On that sad night, it is now known that heavily-armed agents of DSS stormed the homes of judges of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and Federal and State High Courts across the country at hours that appear to be between 8pm and 2am! They forcefully broke into homes, in at least one instance removing and crashing down the entire door in order to secure entry! At the end of the gestapo-like operation, the DSS had arrested up to seven judges including two justices of the Supreme Court. In one instance, after forcing their way into the home of a judge who is known to be a person of high integrity, Nnamdi Dimgba and brutalizing members of his family, they realized they had broken into the wrong house as the name on the two search warrants they produced were different from Dimgba’s. In Port-Harcourt, there was a movie-like scene as DSS officials attempted to enter the home of one judge (reportedly Agomuo) only to be confronted by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and his senior officials. It turned out that the DSS officials were actually trying to force their way into the wrong house! The subsequent statement issued by DSS and reports credited to Justice Liman suggest DSS were attempting to enter Plot 34 (Agomuo’s residence) on the street while Justice Liman who appears to have been their real target resided in Plot 33! Interestingly, DSS reportedly has its own Rivers State office on Plot 35 of the same street!! If there is anything that raises strong doubts in my mind about the DSS statement, it is the assertion that Justice Liman had $2 million in his home which he successfully diverted to another location due to the intervention of Wike and a “sister agency”. The facts clearly question the truth or reasonableness of this position. How could DSS have known there was $2million in a home they didn’t even secure access to, especially as all their efforts at entry were directed at a different house?

There is one fact that in my view exposes the possible charade that DSS’ purported anti-corruption motive for invading the homes of the judges represents. Three of the judges whose homes were invaded had ALREADY been exposed for corruption, indicted and tried by the National Judicial Council (NJC), recommended for dismissal and in one case ordered to be criminally prosecuted. On September 30 2016, just about a week before the DSS invasion, the NJC “suspended from office with immediate effect…the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal Ilorin Division, Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya, Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice I. A. Umezulike and Justice Kabiru M. Auta of the High Court of Justice, Kano State” according to a Vanguard Newspaper report (http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/10/bribery-njc-sacks-3-judges-orders-prosecution/) and in the case of Auta ordered that he be handed over to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 1, in Kano for prosecution. Clearly, at least in those three cases, there was no intelligent rationale for a “sting” operation in the dead of night to “capture” those judges. While we await further details in respect of the other cases, there is no evidence that the DSS was attempting to catch the judicial officers in the course of committing a crime so the attempt to paint the event as a sting is clearly erroneous. It is also clear that the responsibility of investigating and resolving cases of corruption amongst judicial officers when committed in the course of their work belongs to the NJC and not DSS and indeed the direct role of DSS in corruption cases beyond perhaps covertly assisting other agencies such as the Presidency, NJC, Police and EFCC in obtaining evidence, is clearly suspect.

It does seem that apart from the three judges discussed above whose cases had already been finalized by NJC and who the police and EFCC could simply have arrested in broad daylight based on the NJC report, all the other judges involved in the sacrilege to the independence of the judiciary had acted in a manner or delivered rulings unfavourable to government whether in election petitions, cases of illegal detention of persons or alleged corruption cases. Justice Dimgba whose home the DSS “mistakenly” invaded had reportedly criticized the same DSS for disrespect to judicial authority in an alleged corruption case before him. Justice Ademola was trying the Dasuki case and had granted bail to the former National Security Adviser; Justice Muazu Pindiga of the Gombe Division of the Federal High Court was the first chairman of the Rivers State Electoral Tribunal until he was changed midway during the trial (this is open to several interpretations. Were there allegations of corruption against him or was he refusing to play ball?); and the two Supreme Court Justices, Inyang Okoro and Sylvester Ngwuta are from the South-South/South-East and perceived to be politically close to Godswill Akpabio, Senate Minority Leader and former Akwa Ibom State governor and Governor Wike. The point is, there is at least the theoretical possibility that the DSS’ grievance with these judges may be either corruption or politics! As NBA president A. B Mahmoud SAN pointed out in his address at the valedictory event for retiring JSC Galadinma, corrupt judges in Ghana were exposed and dealt with strictly in line with the rule of law (by investigative journalists and Ghana’s equivalent of the NJC, and I may add that certainly it is the FBI (and not the CIA) that investigates judicial corruption in the US.

It is more plausible in the circumstances to regard the actions of DSS as more intended to cow and intimidate the judiciary rather than combat corruption. Unlike many, I am not willing to give the DSS the benefit of the doubt in this particular case. In the matter of constitutionalism, fundamental human rights, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, I will rather err on the side of freedom rather than state security agencies, especially as both the current DSS and the president have historical antecedents, both dated and recent that should concern democrats. However, out of every evil, there could come some good! The judiciary and the legal profession must have observed that many Nigerians are thoroughly disenchanted by credible allegations of corruption on the bar and bench. If the NJC and NBA do not themselves take up the crusade against corruption in the administration of justice, we will enable tyrants and dictators to use it as an excuse to destroy democracy in this nation. And if indeed some judges had significant sums of cash in local and foreign currency in their homes, they would have a heavy burden of disproving the notion that the moneys were proceeds of corruption.

Opeyemi Agbaje