ECOWAS Judges Meet To Assess Justice Delivery

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As part of efforts to support the Nigerian government’s anti-graft campaign; investigators, prosecutors and judges within West Africa convened a meeting in Abuja to assess judicial effectiveness.

The event is a regional capacity building seminar on economic and financial crimes.

The West African judges and law enforcement officials gathered to proffer remedies to reverse trends perverting what they call impartial justice delivery in Nigeria and beyond.

The Vice-President, ECOWAS Court of Justice, Justice Micah Wright said that countries that are serious about fighting the war must put legal regimes in place and have the political will to fight corruption.

Although imperfect, Ghana is said to be home to one of the sub-region’s most transparent judicial systems and in view of Nigeria’s ongoing war on judicial corruption, a Ghanaian High Court judge, Justice Afia Asare-Botwe, submited a way forward.

“Whilst the trial is ongoing, somebody transposes the testimony instantly and all the lawyers and judges area able to see proceedings being typed instantly.

“With that there is no need for any delay in judgement and there is a drastic improvement in the number of judgements which are written by everyone,” she said.

A South African court’s recent decision to advance the trial of President Jacob Zuma on corruption charges speaks to judicial independence and impartiality in other parts of the continent, but in a rare interview with a Nigerian judge, Federal High Court Justice Binta Nyako clarifies that the tenets of integrity and transparency still reign supreme for most judges in Nigeria.

She reaffirmed that Nigerian judges are ready to prosecute anyone as long as the proper conditions are there and the required processes have been followed.

Lawmakers have said that while new legislation including the Proceeds of Crime Bill and the Whistle Blowers Protection Bill will enhance justice administration locally, all Nigerians must exercise discretion in judgment.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption, Senator Chukwuka Utazi warned: “When you go out in total blackmail of the whole system, both the good and the bad, you will make the good ones to be discouraged.”