A retired President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo
Salami, has said that the legal practice is losing the respect associated with
it among Nigerian because of the high level of corruption among its practitioners.
Salami, who made the remark in Ilorin, Kwara state on
Tuesday during the opening ceremony of the 2014 biennial law week of the
Nigerian Bar Association, Ilorin branch, said there are too many corrupt
lawyers and judges fouling the nation’s justice and judicial system with their
nefarious activities.
The fiery retired judicial officer also alleged that some serving and retired senior judges
act as consultants for litigants to pervert course of justice.
According to him, these go-betweens take money from their ‘clients’
to give to judges or intimidate them into judgements fixing.
“It is my respectful view that appeal should be made to
these retired senior justices to leave the despicable role of bribing or
intimidating judges. They should engage
themselves in other respectable vocations.
“The judges, who lend themselves to these dishonourable
practice of receiving money or lending themselves to perverting the course of
justice under the guise of not receiving reward monetary or otherwise, should
note that there are other means of checking the excesses.
“The problem of corruption in the Nigerian judiciary is real
and has eaten deep into the system. It must, however, be noted that it is not
all judicial officers that are corrupt and dishonorable. There are some who are
clearly identifiable as corrupt but they are protected by the system,” he said.
The summit was titled, ‘A centenary of legal practice in
Nigeria: 1914-2014: Legacies and lessons for the next century.’
While accusing the leadership of the NBA of meekly
submitting themselves to political machinations for assured patronage, Salami
submitted that such development was responsible for why politicians treat them
shabbily as well as why the federal government allocated only one slot to the
body in the ongoing national conference in Abuja.
The NBA later rejected the allocation in protest and never
had any representation.
In his remark, the Chairman, NBA, Ilorin branch, Mr.
Mobolaji Ojibara, decried lack of financial autonomy and full self-accounting
status for the judiciary.
Also speaking at the programme, the Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah
Ahmed, observed that the on-going national dialogue has the capacity to
strengthen the tenets of national development and cohesion by healing age-long
national wounds.
He appealed to lawyers to play greater role in the
conference despite the withdrawal of their parent body from the exercise.
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