THE UNPLEASANT SILENCE OF THE CJN by Inibehe Effiong

The Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mahmud Mohammed, on Saturday October 22, 2016 issued a statement through his media aide wherein he described the recent sting operation carried-out by the State Security Service (SSS) as an assault on the judiciary. Surprisingly, the CJN did not respond to the letters addressed to him by two Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Justice Inyang Okoro and Justice Sylvester Ngwuta.

In their separate letters which has generated a lot of controversy, the Justices alleged that some politicians, including a litigant, visited them separately in their residence to seek their assistance to "pervert the course of justice" in electoral cases.

The Minister of Transportation and former governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, the 2015 gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Umana Okon Umana, one pastor Ebebe Ukpong and APC chieftain Ogbonnaya Onu were mentioned by the Justices in their letters.

The two Justices claimed that they reported the alleged nocturnal visits to the CJN orally and that the CJN told them that Amaechi had equally tried to influence him and other Justices of the Supreme Court. Beyond the letters and the verifying affidavit deposed to by Justice Ngwuta, the allegations has not been substantiated by evidence.

The trio of Amaechi, Umana and Ukpong have separately and vehemently denied the allegations levelled against them by the two Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The CJN has not corroborated the accounts given by his Learned brothers.

The CJN's silence is not only unpleasant but troubling. Why has the CJN not reacted to the self-indicting letters of the two Justices? It is not enough for the head of the third arm of government to attack the SSS and the Executive, the CJN ought to have stated his side of the story.

Does it mean that it is a common practice for politicians and litigants to visit the residence of Supreme Court Justices over pending appeals and cases? Is the CJN not worried by the fact that his name has been mentioned by his Learned brothers?

Nigerians expected the CJN to explain why he never considered it necessary to report the visitors to the Nigeria Police Force?. The CJN should have equally explained why Justices of the Supreme Court are allowed to entertain visitors who have interest in cases pending at the apex court contrary to prohibition in Rule 1 (2) (a) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers?

Does it mean that the allegations made by the two Justices were concocted in order to politicise the corruption allegations levelled against them by the SSS and divert public attention from their alleged corrupt practices? What other reasonable inference can be drawn from the silence of the CJN?

Since the letters were released to the public and the media, the CJN should have publicly responded to them. With the self-indicting letters written by the two Justices, it is beyond dispute that there is corruption in the Nigerian Judiciary which calls for urgent and decisive cleansing.