The Chief Justice of Nigeria
(CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, has stated that the judiciary is not to be
blamed for the perceived slow dispensation of justice in the country.
Onnoghen, speaking with State
House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on
Tuesday, said the adjournment of cases is responsible for the delay in
delivering judgement in cases.
He said, “Now, l believe that you
know, with your experience of many years of practice that there has never been
situation in which any case was taken to court and decided upon and the Judge
was not there to listen to the case, or having finished hearing, he refused to
deliver judgement.
“So, when cases are not tried
expeditiously and the Judge is there, ready to listen to the case, you come and
for one reason or the other, you take a date to adjourn the case, and the court
grants the adjournment which is normal during proceedings, you cannot turn
round and blame the Judge for that. These are the basic things that everybody
must know. We must all work together, cooperate for the system to move forward.
“But if you keep thinking that
the Judiciary is the culprit in this delay process, you are not telling the
whole story.
“It is not the judiciary that
would go and arrest someone before looking for evidence. It is not the
judiciary that would go into investigations. No, we do not operate the
inquisitional mode of justice as it is practised by the French. Our own is that
an independent body must investigate, prosecute while the judge decides.”
Justice Onnoghen, who said he was
at the presidential villa to felicitate with President Buhari on his return
from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), expressed joy with
the performance of judges.
“The Commission for the
Prevention of Corruption (COMPRECO) has enhanced the process of justice
dispensation.
“It is in order to enable you to
know the workings of the system that I set up the COMPRECO (Commission for the
Prevention of Corruption) committee.
“All along, everybody is passing
the buck. The prosecution will say ‘it is not our responsibility, we are not
the cause of the delay;’ the investigator will say ‘I am not the cause;’ the
Judge will say, ‘I am not the cause.’ So, the people must know who is the cause
of the delay. That was why I set up that committee. And it is made up of both
the defence counsel, the prosecutor and the Judiciary under the NJC.”
On whether the judiciary is on
the same page with the Executive in the fight against corruption, he said: “I
have answered that before and I still say the same thing. We are on the same
page with the Executive. There are three arms of government and these three
arms constitute the government. The government is not only the Executive.”
The CJN also spoke on the idea of
setting up of special courts for corruption cases and congestion of prisons.
According to him, “It is the
Executive in conjunction with the Legislature that has the prerogatives of
setting up Courts, including the Special Courts, under our Constitution and not
the Judiciary. Once the Executive set up such Courts, the Judiciary will
provide the manpower.”
“You are seeing everything being
done on the issue of decongesting prisons. Next week, we are continuing with
our action. But there is one thing you need to know. There is the physical
constraint about the congestion itself.
“How many were to be contained in
a prison room and how many are there now.
“Secondly, you should also know
that the actual prisoners are fewer compared with the total number you see
there.
“This is where the issue of
awaiting trial comes in and that is the aspect where prison decongestion is
working on and l can assure you that this is being handled.”
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com