By JOHNMARY C. JIDEOBI Esq.
PREFATORY REMARKS:
The fight against corruption [regardless of whatever form it is being fought currently] has been one of the cardinal projects which the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigerian has so much prioritized since assuming office in the year 2015. This fight has been taken frontally to the doorstep of the Nigerian Judiciary. On or around the 8th day of October, 2016, the nation woke up to the shocking news of the houses of some senior Federal Judges/Justices being invaded by the agents of the Nigerian State who later arrested them, interrogated them and subsequently put some on trial. In the said exercise, two Supreme Court Justices were victims. While the twin trials of the Honourable Justice Ngwuta [of the Supreme Court] were halted by the Courts [both the Federal High Court and the Code of Conduct Tribunal] before whom he was arraigned, the Honourable Justice Okoro [of the Supreme Court] later returned to his duty post as there was no criminal charge later preferred against him. One of the fallouts of the events of 8th October, 2016 significant to the soul of our present engagement is the decision of the Nigerian Court of Appeal in Nganjiwa vs. FRN (2018) 4NWLR. (Pt. 1609) 301 which eventuated from the strident resistance mounted by the Honourable Justice Nganjiwa of the Federal High Court to stop the attempt of the Federal Government of Nigeria to put him on criminal trial before the Lagos State High Court.
To download full article click Here