A bill seeking to empower the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to remove corrupt judges through a no-confidence vote, scaled second reading in the house of representatives on Tuesday.
Sponsored by Afam Ogene, a member of the Labour Party (LP)
representing Ogbaru federal constituency of Anambra, the bill aims to alter
sections 231, 238, 250, 256, and 271 of the 1999 constitution, which deal with
the procedure for the removal of judges.
CURRENT LAW
Among other things, section 292 of the constitution states
that “a judicial officer shall be removed from office in the case of chief
justice of Nigeria, president of the court of appeal, chief judge of the
federal high court, president of the national industrial court, chief judge of
the high court of the federal capital territory (FCT), grand kadi of the Sharia
court of appeal of the federal capital territory, and president of customary
court of appeal of the federal capital territory, by the president acting on an
address supported by two-thirds majority of the senate, praying that he be so
removed for his inability to discharge the functions of his office or
appointment (whether arising from infirmity of mind or of body) or for
misconduct or contravention of the code of conduct.
“While the chief judge of a state, grand kadi of a Sharia
court of appeal or president of a customary court of appeal of a state shall be
removed from office by the governor acting on an address supported by a
two-thirds majority of the house of assembly of the state.”
THE PROPOSED LAW
The proposed legislation intends to introduce new
subsections to the aforementioned sections for the removal of corrupt justices
and judges from their respective offices.
The bill seeks to confer powers on the NBA to receive
petitions against any erring judicial officers, consider the defence of the
petitioned officer, and if not satisfied, conduct a confidence vote.
If two-thirds of the members of the NBA in the annual
general meeting or conference pass a vote of no confidence in the petitioned
officer, then his/her continuation in office is immediately terminated.
“This implies that the judicial officer is presumed in the
eyes of the law to have resigned from service,” the legislative brief reads.
Ogene said the essence of the bill is to provide an
alternative constitutional mechanism for disciplining erring and corrupt
judicial officers away from the “mundane role of the National Judicial Council
(NJC), which is no longer potent in curbing the rot in our court and justice
system”.
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