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MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016 • T H I S D AY
PAGE FIFTY-TWO NJC MEETS AS MORE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES FACE IMMINENT ARREST The DSS had on Friday night carried out sting operations in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Gombe and Kano, hauling in two justices of the Supreme Court, one justice of the Court of Appeal and four other judges of the Federal High Court, suspected to have engaged in bribery and large scale corruption. The operations, however, attracted angry reactions from the public, particularly the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), which declared a state of emergency in the judicial sector, saying the rule of law was under siege even as the National Judicial Council (NJC) meets today to deliberate on the development. THISDAY checks close to the NJC, the body responsible for the appointment and discipline of judicial officers, suggested that the suspected judicial officers under investigation might be suspended pending the determination of the accusations against them. Yesterday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) joined the fray on the side of the embattled judicial officers, accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of preparing the ground for fascism by ordering the arrests of the judges. But the Presidency in its reaction gave assurances that President Buhari reserved his highest respect for the judiciary as the third arm of government. A statement yesterday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, said the president would not do anything to undermine its independence.
Shehu said: "Buhari remains a committed democrat, in words and in his actions, and will not take any action in violation of the constitution. "The recent surgical operation against some judicial officers is specifically targeted at corruption and not at the judiciary as an institution. "In a robust democracy such as ours, there is bound to be a plurality of opinions on any given issue, but there is a convergence of views that the country has a corruption problem that needs to be corrected.” The Presidency regretted that reports by a section of the media were giving it cause for concern. According to it, "In undertaking the task of reporting, the media should be careful about the fault lines they open. It is wrong to present this incident as a confrontation between the executive and judicial arms of government. "The presidency has received assurances from the DSS that all due processes of the law, including the possession of search and arrest warrants were obtained before the searches. "To suggest that the government is acting outside the law in a dictatorial manner is to breach the interest of the state." THISDAY intelligence source, however, said apart from those being detained and interrogated, another eight judges, including two justices of the Supreme Court, are also being investigated for mind-boggling corruption cases. He said a total of seven judges, including two
justices of the Supreme Court — Justice John Inyang Okoro and Justice Sylvanus Ngwunta — are still being interrogated by the security services at its headquarters in Abuja and might be charged to court anytime from today. "A total of 15 judges are being investigated by the Department of State Services and other security agencies. Seven of them are currently being interrogated at the DSS headquarters in Abuja and may be charged to court as from Monday,’’ the source stated, adding: "While another eight including one or two from the Supreme Court are still being investigated and more of the judges will be arrested in the next few days or weeks.’’ The judges being detained include: Justice Muhammad Ladan Tsamiya of the Court of Appeal; Justice Kabiru Auta in Kano; Justice Muazu Pindiga who was arrested in Gombe; the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Auta, and Justice Adeniyi Ademola. The intelligence source said that none of the judges arrested during the DSS’ sting operations between Friday and the early hours of Saturday had been released. "The seven judges being detained and interrogated have not been released; their statements are still being taken; they are cooperating with the interrogators. The interrogation is taking more time than expected because of the many questions the arrested judges need to answer,’’ the source said. THISDAY gathered that the sting operations carried out against the suspects were the
accumulation of many events, linked to "mind-boggling corrupt practices and the willingness, determination and desire by the security agents to fight corruption head-on". Justifying the operations of the DSS, the source said: "If not DSS who else? There is nothing unusual about the DSS’ actions; it is normal. The security institution acted within the law guarding its operations. "The actions of the suspected judges border on national security. We are talking about huge corrupt practices and national security that are beyond the mandate of the EFCC and the ICPC. "If we talk about democracy — from the conduct of election to election rigging; issues of foreign investments; economy and other issues that have to do with our national security, they all end up in courts. So anybody or institution that tries to undermine that institution is toying with the national security of our dear nation.’’ In the eyes of the law, the intelligence officer said, the suspects were not above the law and didn’t have immunity from being investigated or prosecuted, explaining that they were ordinary people like every other citizen. He said the DSS acted based on petitions it received against the judges. "We have a situation where one of the judges was so foolish that he entered a departmental store to collect a bribe from a litigant. We have the evidence including video recording,’’ the source stated. Reacting to several criticisms against the DSS’
was the reflection of the bonds of power and influence between the centre and the region. "And the Western Region, the Northern Region, Eastern Region and the Mid-Western Region of the country were developing faster than the states created since the military intervened in governance.” Former Minister of External Affairs and Under Secretary of the United Nations, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, who was one of the discussants at the occasion, praised the author of the book for his contribution to knowledge, noting that the publication was timely, coming at a time the nation was facing one of its most difficult challenges. Saying the author blamed the country's poor performance on ethnicity, greed and corruption, but explaining that those were the effects rather than the causes of the challenges of nation building. Gambari said Orjiakor’s position still provided food for thought "for Nigeria’s overly exuberant antipodeans". The author, Orjiakor, explained that the book was about the need to restructure the country. “My thesis is that if we do not restructure, we could muddle along for another 20 or 50 years. We have been running round and round in a circle,” he said. He argued: "We have to redesign the structure of our
country, make it stronger and then it will take off. It's not all the answers, Nigeria's problem is not restructuring but it is the fundamental basis for change. "As a matter of fact, it's only a challenge, it's not a problem because when you have a challenge, you tackle it by going to the source to give them the information they need. Many people are either deliberately or ignorantly misunderstanding the concept of restructuring. "Restructuring in no way suggests dismembering the country, no. As a matter of fact, it means the opposite, it means strengthening our unity and mutual understanding and giving people the opportunity to pursue their own lives with everything God has given them as talents. “What we are doing now is suppressing both individual and collective talents by exposing everybody to wait for federal government to bring bread and butter at the end of every month. "How long is that going to work, especially now that the oil revenue, the oil rent we were all depending on is beginning to deplete? How long can we continue to feed ourselves from one centre? That is what the quest is. So, if we bring the message home to the electorate in every part of this country, I promise you a majority of Nigerians will begin to clamour for restructuring."
NIGERIA IS FAILING, SAYS ANYAOKU The former diplomat, therefore, joined many other Nigerians clamouring for the restructuring of the country along a more flexible fiscal federal state that would replace the present federal structure, which retains more power and resources at the centre. Speaking in Abuja during the launch of a book, 'Nigeria: The Forsaken Road to Nationhood and Development' by Ambassador Humphrey Orjiakor, he argued that for Nigeria to develop and stay united, the country must be restructured. Anyaoku said because of the dominance of the centre over the constituent states, the country was fast failing to meet the expectations of its founding fathers and admonished those opposed to restructuring to have a rethink. He said: "I think that the Nigeria we have with 36 federating units now is not working. The country continues to under-perform because of the 36 states we have now. No less than 27 of them can no longer pay the salaries of their workers. "The planning of economic development is less efficient on the basis of these non-viable states. If we had six federating units, you would have more viable basis for planning economic development and those who fear that it would
mean disintegration of the country are wrong, because the country was doing a lot better at the time of its independence.” Reminding his audience that the country did better when it was governed along four regions, Anyaoku argued that the current structure, which was initiated by the military from 1966 was defective. “What we are doing now will lead us nowhere in terms of development, and in terms of building nationhood to which Nigerians will be proud of to belong," he said. On the opposition against restructuring, Anyaoku said: "We are failing and that is the only argument to present to those who are opposed to restructuring. I think we need to persuade those with hardening positions against restructuring because this country is living in denial of the basic facts of its under-performance." He explained that the overcentralisation of power at the centre following the intervention of the military in politics led the country to its present woes. According to him, "The centre was not that powerful, we have the example of the then leader of the biggest political party in the country, the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), Sir Ahmadu Bello, who chose to remain as the Premier of the North and sent his lieutenant to be the prime minister of the federation. That
action, the intelligence source added that the agency was ready to defend its action in competent court of law, challenging whoever felt aggrieved to take the DSS to court. "During the sting operations, huge amount of monies, some in foreign currencies, were collected from some of the judges and they all signed the exhibits recovered in their houses. The DSS has strong evidence to charge them to court and that will be done as soon as the interrogation is concluded,’’ the source added. Responding to the press statement by the leadership of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), which some observers said might create tension in the country, the senior intelligence officer said: “There is no tension at all. Whoever threatens national security of the nation will be dealt with. "Gone are the days where those on the wrong side will turn around to intimidate us.
That will never happen again in this country.’’ Apparently responding to the acclaimed illegality of the action of the DSS, the source said that a search warrant was obtained before the sting operations were carried out in the affected places, adding that "a warrant signed by a magistrate court can be executed even in the villa".
PDP Condemns Arrests of Judges Reacting to the development, the opposition PDP accused the President Buhari-led administration of displaying total disregard for the rule of law by ordering the arrests of the judicial officers. "This invasion is the latest in a series of actions taken by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration which reveal its disregard for the rule of law and its abject disdain for the Principles Continued on page 53
FAYEMI NEGOTIATES $500M MINING INVESTMENT FUND WITH NSIA Muhammadu Buhari for the sector to access funds in the Natural Resource Fund obtained, and other funding supports gotten. The minister stated that as part of the other funding supports for the development of the mining industry, the World Bank has indicated its willingness to provide funding to help the sector’s transactional activities. “Yes, it is hugely capital intensive and if we are going to make a significant headway in the manner that the president has often spoken about, we need to put a lot more weight on access to finance by serious players in the sector and we have gone about this in a multipronged manner,” said Fayemi. He stated: “The first is that for the first time, the president is granting us access to benefit from the Natural Resource Fund which is 1.6 per cent of the Federation Account, similar to the Ecological Fund, UBEC Fund and it is there primarily for the use of agriculture, mining and water resources. “I don’t know how much is there now but it is automatically deducted and it is not small money. Depending on what we approach the federal executive council to release to us from there based on our work, we have decided that it should go for exploration because that is the most capital-intensive part of mining. “We are also in discussion with the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority to put together a mining investment fund. About $500 million, and it is looking good even though we are in discussion and have not finalised yet. They are getting a lot of interest from private capital, equity funds venture capital and I believe this will complement whatever will come from the Natural Resource Fund.” He added that: “Outside of that, we are also talking with
the World Bank to support actual transaction activities - those who are already in exploration and just about to move into production but don’t have enough funds, and this will be like a support fund for such activity across the sector.” “We believe because we are starting from below zero, the major miners will come in once they see that things are beginning to be discovered, they will begin to refocus their interest on Nigeria,” he added. The Natural Resource Fund, which was reportedly set up by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in 2001 for the development of alternative natural resources outside oil and gas, is domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Fayemi said the roadmap would first focus on reestablishing an accurate geological survey of Nigeria’s mineral potentials to enable for bankable investment decisions, reform the sector’s regulatory and licensing regimes, then push for in-country mining and processing of solid minerals to meet local demands, before launching out to the global market as a standard mineral mining and processing country.
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