Judges in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Monday abandoned their various duty posts to protest last weekend’s arrest of their colleagues in different parts of the country on allegations of corruption.
The Department of State Security (DSS), which carried out the arrests, claimed to have found incriminating documents and foreign currencies in the homes of the affected judicial officers.
The journalists who besieged the Magistrate court located at the Life Camp in Abuja as early as 8:00 am to cover the arraignment of the arrested judges waited endlessly as the case neither came up nor did the judges appear.
It was gathered that some of the judges boycotted the courtroom in solidarity with their colleagues, and were attending a meeting at the FCT High Court in Maitama where a position will be taken either to declare a total boycott of the courts or to maintain a neutral posture in the matter.
One of the lawyers who spoke to journalists, Princewell Ebubedike berated the action of the judges saying it would amount to aiding and abetting corruption in the judiciary, which is the last hope of the common man, thereby eroding public confidence in the justice system. He condemned the manner in which the security agents made their arrests without proper recourse to procedure.
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