When Justice Dances Naked At Marketplace
By UbongAbasi Ise
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Nigeria still remains a country that offer a compendious description of uncivilized, adulterated democracy of a typical Third World country where myriads of malpractices and despicable modus operandi endure. With crass looting of commonwealth taking the place of dividends of democracy, and with all organs of government serving as hubs of corrupt practices, one find it difficult to identify a more qualified arm of government that could be trusted in leading a blithering warfare against corruption.While the executive arm is heavily intoxicated with power and become highly manipulative in pursuit of its narrow interest with no recourse to rule of law, the legislature is there ‘padding’ the budget; while the judiciary’s notoriety in bribery is becoming increasingly popular. This demonstrates that Nigeria is desperately in a fix of three arms of corruption running from executive to legislative down to the judiciary arm of government.
Judiciary could be the worst place to have corruption. Malpractices in judicial system not only make justice bleak for common man, but also condemn him to nadir of despair. Yes, I have to agree with the retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Samson Uwaifo that “a corrupt judge is more harmful to the society than a man who runs amok with dagger in a crowded street.” Therefore, the integrity of judiciary becomes a thing of collective concern. Sometime ago, I was caught in the web of emotions when I read through the pages of a legal thriller titled, The Innocent Man, written by John Grisham and published in 2006. In the true-life crime story, Ron Williamson, a former minor league baseball player, was a victim of judicial corruption in a little Oklahoman town, Ada. He was mentally affected by divorce and alcoholism. Ron Williamson and his friend, Dennis Fritz, were wrongly convicted in a case involving a rape and murder of a 21-year-old bar waitress, Debbie Sue Carter, in December 1982. Williamson suffered severe mental degradation during his many years on death row. He was five days away in September 1994 from being executed when the action was stayed by the court, following the filing of a habeas corpus petition. Something happened. Williamson was acquitted by DNA evidence and other new methods introduced by the Innocence Project. He was eventually released in 1999. At the end of it all, it was Glen Gore, who lived in his Ada neighbourhood, that was, on June 24, 2003, found culpable in the heinous crime. Gore was subsequently sentenced to death, but his sentence was overturned in August 2005.
The forgoing showed how justice could be perverted to victimize the innocent and how it could also be manipulated and transformed to a tool of deprivation. The night of Wednesday September 11, 2019 offered a moment that aroused deep concerned about our judicial system. The national assembly election petition sitting Uyo produced two judgments on a petition brought before it by Senator Godswill Akpabio challenging the declaration of Senator Chris Ekpenyong as the winner of February 23 senatorial election in AkwaIbom Northwest District. Just one case, two judges confirmed Chris Ekpenyong winner and dismissed the petition, while one of the three panel members chose to give the dissenting judgment in favour of the petitioner, Senator Akpabio. If a deontological morally-oriented approach is applied in appraising these judgments, all of the two could never be intrinsically correct at the same time. Something must have influenced the two: it could be either the inducement or the conscience.
The two verdicts have divided Akwa Ibom publics. There have been funny bribery accusations and counter-accusations on the judges according to the basis of support as predicated by partisan politics. The inconsistencies in both the majority and the minority split judgments appear grossly overlooked. People refused to think that they could become victims of perverted judgment someday.If the judicial system has degenerated to the extent whereby justice is priced and bought like shrimps and periwinkles in the market, then nobody should be safe in the hands of our laws.
Few weeks before the ruling, Barr. Leo Ekpenyong had bestirred the media space with an article, titled "Judgment for Sale" alleging that two members of the tribunal had been compromised. He predicted that there would be split in the decisions in the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District court matter. Few minutes to 12 midnight on Wednesday 11th September, the judgment split correctly as predicted by Leo Ekpenyong.
If Ekpenyong could be able to predict that judgment would split and it came to pass, could we now doubt that the two judges collected bribe as he predicted? I guess that “the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them” – to borrow Charles Bukoswki from his 1982 fiction, Ham On Rye.
Some quarters are accusing the dissenting judge, Justice Sherriff Hafizu, for taking bribe from Senator GodswillAkpabio after he came out with his shocking verdict on Wednesday night. Is it now that he is found corruptible after he decided to toe different path of justice? If he was so bribed, how could he be so confident by staging a walk-out from next ruling on a petition involving Emmanuel Akpan of APC and Nsikak Ekong of PDP? How could a bribed judge be persuaded futilely from 9.00 am to 8.00 pm on Thursday 12th September 2019 to join his colleagues for the ruling? He should have been the one to quiver and do the bidding of others for fear of being exposed. Did Hafizu stage a walk out because his other two colleagues refused to accept the bribe? That could be foolhardy.
We should remember that judges had gotten their hands burnt before in Akwa Ibom post-elections matters involving late Dr. Ime Sampson Umanah of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples’ Party, ANPP, and Obong Victor Attah of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP. After the governorship election tribunal was concluded with controversial judgment, Justices Matilda Adamu, Christopher Senlong and chief magistrate James Isede were dismissed from the judiciary by NJC. So it has happened before, and it may happen again to the erring member(s) of the Akwa Ibom national assembly election petition tribunal.
Yes! I am UbongAbasiIse. For comment, please send SMS to 08189914609 | Email: ubongabasiise@gmail.com
©The Sensor Newspaper
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