The former President, Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdullahi, has admitted that there are judges in Nigeria but not all of them are corrupt.
He declared: “we are not disputing the fact that there is no bad element in the judiciary, but not all in the system are bad. If you compare the number of the bad ones, the good ones out-number the bad ones.”
Justice Umaru Abdullahi spoke today, Saturday, during a public presentation of the journal on Private and Comparative Law, organized in his honour by the Faculty of Law of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
“The judiciary is a human and Nigerian institution. Therefore, it is not surprising that some few judicial officers are being picked up for going out of their parameters of judicial function.’’
The former appeal court judge insisted that the Nigerian judiciary has developed into a very solid institution, adding that it has been delivering services to the continuity of the country and is in the forefront in providing solutions to some of the problems facing the country.
Justice Umaru Abdullahi said that it is unfair to condemn the judiciary because of the few bad ones, as there is no sector in Nigeria that is insulated from corruption.
“There is the machinery the government can use effectively to flush out bad elements in the judiciary.”
He said that the government also has the machinery to ensure that only credible persons are appointed as judges.
The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, said that the judiciary has been trying its best in the fight against corruption, adding that the judiciary has a standard of measuring judges.
“We have our code of conduct the judicial officer is expected to abide with, If you see anything different from our code of conduct, that officer would have gone astray.
“If you go strictly by the code of conduct you can’t go wrong; So, we are committed to the fight against corruption.” [myad]
