ANTI-CORRUPTION: NBA Urges Buhari To Operate Within The Ambit Of Law

NIGERIAN Bar Association, NBA has enjoined President Mohammadu Buhari on Wednesday to essentially conduct and limit his anti-corruption drive within the ambit of the law in the interest of the democracy which the nation is practicing.

The NBA which admitted that the fight against corruption in the country was overdue and a necessity however stated that such fight triumphs excellently where the law is respected and obeyed adding that the act of disobedience to the laws of the land is itself tantamount to corruption. 

It remarked that democracy entails leadership according to the stipulated rules and not dictatorship adding that the 1999 Constitution as the grundnorm should be the guide on any policy of the government. Emphatically, it called for the increase of the Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria to twenty-one as provided in Section 230 (2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The National President of the Association, Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN) who spoke at a valedictory court session in honour of Justice Muhammad Muntaka-Coomassie who bowed out of the Supreme Court bench yesterday, Wednesday having clocked the statutory retirement age of seventy years, dispassionately lamented over what he identified as the “overzealousness” of the security agencies in the country in the name of anti-corruption crusades.

“The NBA does not condone corruption, our point is that the war can be conducted within the ambit of the law and civility. Certainly, it can be won without breaching the principles of rule of law upon which our democracy is built,” he said.

Nonetheless, the NBA President noted that corruption is evidently existent within the judiciary itself and assured that the relevant bodies are working assiduously towards checkmating the corrupt ones among them. He added that the association would not tolerate corruption and unconventional behaviours of its personnel once complaints are lodges to the appropriate quarters accordingly.

“Petition any judicial officer involved in or suspected to be involved in any corrupt or fraudulent transaction to the appropriate quarters for actions.

“The NBA condemns in its entirety the generalization and/ or categorization of the judiciary as being corrupt and an impediment to the zero tolerance policy of the present administration.

“While acknowledging that there may be a few bad eggs in the system, the NBA restates  unequivocally that the categorization of the entire judiciary as corrupt is a misconception and will stand solidly behind the judiciary in any attempt to intimidate or harass its personnel.

“The NBA, however, wishes to sound a note of warning to the few eggs in the system to desist from causing untoward embarrassment to the judicial arm of government. We believe that a word is enough for the wise and wise counsel will prevail in this regard.