Anger Grows In Judiciary Against Buhari, Chief Judge Bars Remand Orders To EFCC
President Muhammadu Buhari[/caption]
There is growing anger in the judiciary against President Muhammadu Buhari over his continued flouting of court orders and ‘treating the third arm of government as an appendage of the executive arm’ The Whistler has learnt.
A judiciary source told our correspondent that judges are getting embarrassed daily by the abuse of the rule of law by government agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Department of State Security (DSS) all allegedly acting on the orders of the president to continue to detain accused persons granted bail or not arraigning others within the 48hours legal window.
The Whistler further learnt that the dissatisfaction with the executive was what informed the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Justice Ishaq Bello, to order magistrates in the FCT to desist forthwith from granting remand orders to the EFCC.
The EFCC had always relied on FCT Magistrates’ Courts for remand warrants to justify its continued detention of suspects being investigated for corruption and other economic crimes.
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The commission said last week it had obtained a detention warrant from a Magistrates’ Court in the FCT to enable it keep the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, in its custody pending the conclusion of its investigation.
Justice Bello at a visit to the Keffi Medium prison in Keffi, Nasarawa State, on Tuesday, read the riot act to magistrates in the FCT who this medium gathered are corralled by the anti-graft agency to issue warrants they have no authority to order.
In December 2015, Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court excused himself from hearing the treason case against Radio Biafra Director, Nnamdi Kanu, after the accused objected to the trial due to the Federal Government’s repeated disobedience of court orders relating to the case.
“If any of the parties has no confidence in the court, he has the right to say so. Assuming it was the prosecution, if they had no confidence in the court of jurisdiction; would they not have done so?
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“I hereby remit the case file to the honourable Chief Judge of this court to reassign it,” Justice Mohammed said.
So far, ex NSA, Sambo Dasuki has been granted bail thrice but was still being held by the DSS on the orders of Buhari.
