Shun Corruption and Unlawful Practices- Olanipekun tell lawyers Judges

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Chief Wole Olanipekun, on Tuesday, told members of the Bar and Bench to shun corruption and unlawful practices.

Olanipekun gave the admonishment while giving a keynote address titled ‘Promoting a Pace-Setting and Productive Judiciary in Lagos State’ at the 2017/18 golden jubilee legal year celebrations in Lagos today'.

“Your Lordships are not only expected to be impartial, decent, courteous, fair, sober, reflective and God-fearing.

“In my honest opinion and I want to believe that of many Nigerians share this humble thought of mine, a judge has no business being corrupt or corrupted. To the public mind and conscience, the judge is the trustee of the assurance of justice.”

“A judge should not be influenced or be compromised by other factors or nuances, other than the law and facts of the case placed before him,” he said.

He further noted that judges and judicial workers constitute the court and that judicial workers should maintain very high moral standards.

“Can the pacesetter status of the judiciary in Lagos State be enhanced if our judges have to work with miscreants, saboteurs, rogues, infidels, criminals, touts and delinquents, as registrars, court clerks, bailiffs, sheriffs, personal assistants etc.?

“A judge alone does not constitute the court, but a court is constituted by the judge, counsel, registrars of all cadres, bailiffs, secretaries etc.

“A judge does not know whether any of his aides, registrars of any lawyer has been using his name, title and office to collect brines bribes purportedly meant for him from litigants.

“Examples are legion, but the fact remains that no judge is a knight-errant and no judge or human possesses the attributes of God, who alone is omniscient and omnipresent.

“Any of these staff of the judiciary who has been caught engaging in any unscrupulous activity aimed at tarnishing the image of the judiciary, or bringing it into opprobrium, should not be treated with kid gloves,” he said.

Olanipekun decried the insufficient number of judges in Lagos state, adjudicating thousands of cases in courtrooms,as at when compared to their counterparts in the Federal High Court.

“In 2015, 3,447 civil cases and 337 criminal ones were filed in the Lagos State High Court, making a total of 3,784; in 2016, the number increases significantly, to 3636 civil cases, with 636 criminal cases, making a total of 4,272.

“From Jan. 2017 to Oct. 4, 2017, 2,895 civil cases and 743 criminal cases have been filed, making a total of 3548 cases recorded thus far while the number will exponentially increase before the year runs out.

“At the Federal High Court Abuja, a total number of 3,963 cases were filed between 2015 to 2017; yet the Federal High Court has about 100 judges as against 56 judges of the Lagos State Judiciary.

“If any State Judiciary deserved the sympathy and understanding of both the government of Lagos State and the National Judicial Commission (NJC), it is the judiciary of this state which urgently needs more hands.

“For 56 judges to take charge of well over 12,000 cases pending in the High Court of Lagos State is unrealistic, as that state judiciary does not need anything less than 100 judges for now,” Olanipekun said.

The SAN also said that the process of succession as a Chief Judge should be seamless and charged the State Judicial Service Commission (SJSC) to ensure the early appointment of a successor for the office of the Chief Judge.

“Since the SJSC is aware that the Hon. Justice O.Oke will retire constitutionally on June 10, 2019, and since the Chief Judge is also the Chairman of the SJSC, the process for appointment of a successor should begin sufficiently in earnest.

Adding that “As Justice Oke retires on June 10, 2019, her successor should be sworn in, not in acting capacity, but in substantive status ad Chief Judge of Lagos State on June 11, 2019,” the SAN said.

He also charged Justice Opeyemi Oke, the Acting Chief Judge of Lagos State to be fair, work as a team with her colleagues and expressed confidence that she will take the Lagos Judiciary to the next level.