Several cases of alleged corruption by high-profile government officials, senators, state governors have been pending in courts for years
DAKAR (TrustLaw) - The Chief Justice of Nigeria has urged judges in the West African nation to prioritise criminal matters related to official corruption and decide on these cases within six months, the Nation newspaper reported on Friday.
Several cases of alleged corruption by high-profile government officials, senators and state governors have been pending for years in Nigerian courts as a result delays in the country’s judicial system.
“I hereby strongly advise all Judges to accelerate the hearing of such cases and ensure that they are dispensed with within six months of filing,” Chief Justice Dahiru Musdapher said at a lecture organised by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
“If for any reason the prosecution is not ready to proceed with the case, then the matter should be struck out rather than leaving the public with the impression that the judiciary is not performing its necessary role in curbing corrupt practices in Nigeria. These delays cannot be tolerated any longer,” Musdapher added.
He described corruption as the bane of Nigeria’s development.
Nigeria has often been rated among the world’s most corrupt nations in international governance and transparency indexes.
In the past decade, Nigerian authorities have passed legislation and created anti-graft agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The agencies have in the past six years made a series of arrests and initiated court cases but most of the cases involving top officials and personalities have stalled.
Legal experts in the country say the same judges who handle cases of corruption also have to handle civil and election cases, so they postpone the corruption trials leading to delays.
A veteran Nigerian lawyer, Edwin Clarke, last week urged the country’s authorities to set up special courts to try high-profile corruption cases in a bid to speed up the process.
Musdapher promised the use of electronic technologies to speed up court processes starting with a computerisation of the Nigerian Supreme Court operations to ensure efficient and speedy processing of court documentations, fast-track compilation (and transmission) of records of proceedings.
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