EFCC moves to prosecute seven corrupt Judges

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

The Supreme Court is set to meet on the cases of the 23 judges, who are being investigated over large scale corruption.

This is just as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, moves in to take over the matter from where the council stops.

Saturday Vanguard learnt that that already the commission’s operatives had established enough evidence of corruption against seven of the affected judges and was ready to charge them to court any moment from now.

The Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, is reported to have visited the Chief Justice of Nigeria and given the assurance that the judges would be charged as soon as the NJC concluded its findings on them.

Saturday Vanguard learnt yesterday that the CJN had however asked the panels probing the judges to give them ‘fair hearing’ in the discharge of their assignment.
It was gathered that the directive by the CJN to the panels to ensure that each of the suspects were heard out, was responsible for the delay in the meeting of the NJC to ratify the verdict of the panels.

It was learnt that the Supreme Court would first meet on the matter before an enlarged meeting of the NJC to take a final decision on the fate of the affected judicial officers.

Findings by Saturday Vanguard showed that the panels, which sat on the petitions raised against the judges found almost all of them culpable and accordingly recommended that they be reprimanded by the judiciary to serve as a deterrent to others in the system.

A top judiciary source told Saturday Vanguard that the CJN was eager to see an end to the matter, which has impinged negatively on the image of the judiciary.
“But what is clear is that the CJ also wants to call the bluff of the affected judicial officers and see to the end of the matter before her retirement towards the end of the year.

The suspected judges are from the State and Federal High courts as well as the Court of Appeal.