Law Is Sweet: Prof. Sagay Blast SAN's, Lawyers, Says the Chief Justice of Nigeria is the NJC

Filling an Assets Declaration Form is totally outside the ambit of a judicial officer’s work, explains Professor Sagay who is the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Chairman.

According to the legal luminary, He differentiated between the ratio decidendi of the Court of Appeal in Nganjiwa’s case and that of Justice Onnoghen's case, which he said was directing its judgment to a judicial officer committing an offence in the process of carrying out his duties as a judge. For instance, demanding bribe from a party to the case before him.

Here's what he said as culled from the Nation Newspapers explaining why the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Onnoghen’s assets non-declaration charge cannot first be determined by the National Judicial Council (NJC).

“If one may ask – should a drunken judge behind a car steering wheel kill an innocent pedestrian, will the offence be taken before the NJC, before the police can act on the crime?

“Indeed, in spite of its defects, the Court of Appeal judgment in the Nganjiwa’s case expressly limited reference to the NJC only to cases of a judicial officers’ misconduct in court whilst exercising his authority as judge in case before him in court.

“According to the court: ‘It must be expressly stated that if a Judicial officer commits theft, fraud, murder or manslaughter, arson and the likes, which are crimes committed outside the scope of performance of his official functions, he may be arrested, interrogated and prosecuted accordingly by the State directly without recourse to the NJC. These classes of criminal act are not envisaged and captured by the provisions of paragraph 21, Part One of the Third Schedule.’

“This demonstrates the hollowness and invalidity of the argument that every offence committed by a judicial officer must first be brought before the NJC, before the law enforcement agencies can entertain it.”

It is only normal for Learned Senior Advocates Nigeria to fault the CJN's arraignment as they only speak from their cheeks.

Seriously again, they can’t be serious.  They must obviously be speaking tongue in cheek.  Even a baby, three months old, must realise that no one can get justice against the CJN at the NJC.  The CJN is not only the Chairman of the NJC, he is also the appointor of 20 out of the NJC’s 23 members.  The CJN is the NJC.