The Federal Government, in reference to the arrest of judges across the country, says despite public out cry it is not unusual to step on “sensitive toes” in its efforts to rid the country of corruption.
This is even as it clarified that the Department of State Services (DSS) dully obtained a search warrant for the arrest of the seven judges. Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohamamed, who briefed journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, alongside the minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, and minister of state for transport, Hadi Sirika, said under the new criminal law anyone could be searched anywhere and at anytime.
“In the process of fighting corruption it is not unusual that you step on some very sensitive toes, but the question to ask and I think these has been adequately answered by the Attorney General, is that let’s remove emotion from facts,” he said.
The judges, Justices John Inyang Okoro and Sylvester Nwali Ngwuta of the Supreme Court; Justice Muhammad Ladan Tsamiya of the Court of Appeal; Justice Kabiru Auta of the Kano High Court; Justice Mu’azu Pindiga of the Gombe High Court; Justice Ibrahim Auta, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, and Justice Adeniyi Ademola who were arrested simultaneously between Friday and Saturday by operatives of the DSS on allegations of corruption were released on bail Sunday night.
However, the debate of their arrest continues in the public space even as the security agency sets out to arrest more judicial officers. Reports say the DSS had made attempts for over 10 months, to investigate the judges even as the NJC refused to cooperate. It was the lack of cooperation that prompted the DSS to obtain search warrants from a magistrate’s court in Abuja on October 5, and subsequently effected their arrest two days later.