US Report: Labour Blames Judiciary for Massive Corruption

Faulty judgments and the ease with which suspects of corrupt practices are granted injunctions by courts to evade arrests and investigations by the nation’s security agencies were the reasons given for the massive corruption in Nigeria outlined in the 2012 US Human Rights report

The President General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Peter Esele, in a telephone conversation with THISDAY, yesterday said the work of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) have been hampered by the judiciary who grant unnecessary injunctions to suspects or adjourned cases indefinitely.

“Our attention is always on what the Executive is doing or not doing. We have three tiers of government and they are all responsible for fighting corruption. The Judiciary is the worst culprit right now. They are fixers who just fix judgments, they give perpetual injunctions. Someone would go to court to stop the police from investigating or arresting him and he would be granted such,” he said.

Esele added that all judges should possess the integrity to refuse bribes or inducements from any quarters and where a judge is accused of having taken bribe to deliver a faulty judgment, such judge must stand trial for corruption.

“The National Judicial Council by commission or omission is supporting these acts because when a judge is accused of corruption, the next thing is that the judge is retired and he still gets all the benefits accrued to him while the society continues to pay for his faulty judgment. Or are they above the law?” he queried.

Esele cautioned that such faulty judgments would cause anarchy in the country as people would resort to ‘getting justice by any means’ once the confidence reposed in the courts is lost.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said the US reports has backed its claims that the government is only paying lip service to fighting corruption in Nigeria.
Speaking with THISDAY in a telephone interview, the Acting Secretary General of the NLC, Mr. Chris Uyot, said there have been no concrete results even though the government claims to be fighting hard to curb corruption in the country.

He added that the recent pardon of former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha had reversed whatever could be considered the little gains made in the anti-corruption crusade.
“For example, various people were fingered in the over N1 trillion subsidy scam, not one of them has been convicted. We want to see the facts, we want to see results. The Federal Government continues to mouth the fight against corruption, but we are not seeing enough action on ground,” he said.