Bode George
| credits: PUNCHNG
| credits: PUNCHNG
The
Supreme Court judgment which reversed the conviction of the former
Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Olabode George, on Friday,
has been trailed by reactions from the members of the public, including
lawyers and activists.
A lawyer and human rights activist, Fred
Agbaje, who praised the Supreme Court for its swift hearing of the
case, said the court had done its job as “a final arbiter of justice in
the country.”
Agbaje added that he was rather interested in the legality of the judgment than its political implications.
He said, “I’m not carried away by the
political implications of the judgment but simply interested in the
legality and the constitutional issue arising from the judgment, which
is to the effect that contract splitting may simply be a civil matter
but it is unknown in the realms of criminal jurisprudence. You can’t
fault that.
“You can only punish somebody for an
offence that is known to law, and not otherwise. If the Lagos High Court
has punished George for contract splitting and the Appeal Court agreed
with it and the Supreme Court has dispassionately as the final arbiter
looked at it, that is the end of the matter.”
Agbaje also warned the public to be wary
of unconfirmed allegations, saying that a former President, Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo, who alluded to executive interference in the judgment
of the judiciary in a recent letter to President Goodluck Jonathan,
lacked evidence.
He said, “The fact that Obasanjo alluded
to political intervention in judicialism in Nigeria does not make his
position 100 per cent correct. Such an aspersion as stated in Obasanjo’s
thesis to Jonathan will be a dangerous development in the judicial
system in Nigeria. If he has security report that the judiciary was
hampered with by the presidency, fine, but he didn’t say that.
“If there is any proven case of
executive interference in judicialism, then it will be sad commentary
for all that this country has attained. But since nothing has been
established, I won’t jump into anybody’s ship since Obasanjo didn’t
substantiate it. Once a situation is reached in which Nigerians cannot
go to court and get justice, then it means that justice apart from being
blind, is now a respecter of persons in authority. But as far as I’m
concerned, none of these has happened in George’s case.
“I, therefore, warn that political
colouration, no matter how palatable they may be in the realms of
politics, must never be allowed to crawl into the concept of
judicialism. The moment politics is brought into adjudicatory process,
then it is goodbye to justice delivery in Nigeria. If true, then it’s
dangerous.”
Speaking on the issue in a phone
interview with Saturday PUNCH, the Executive Chairman of the Coalition
Against Corrupt Leaders, Debo Adeniran, said it would be wrong to jump
to conclusions on the matter, adding that the public should not
“sacrifice rule of law for rule of emotions.”
He said, “As much as we desire that all
corruption suspects should be diligently prosecuted, we don’t preempt
any court of law as to what the judgment should be, except in cases
where we discover that the course of justice has been manipulated. This
case is that an allegation has been leveled against Bode George for
contract splitting, as a matter of fact, we published a poster of him as
a convict when he was convicted by the Lagos court. But now, the
Supreme Court has said that he’s not guilty. We are really not happy if
it’s true that he was maliciously prosecuted in the first instance.
A situation whereby we do not have the
fact of the case the way the judges have it, until when we are sure that
the travesty of justice , we can’t condemn those who delivered the
judgment. However, it is different from the case of Yakubu Yusuf who
confessed to have stolen more than N27bn pension fund and was given a
pat on the wrist judgment. In that case, the judges can be
overwhelmingly condemned, but in a situation where the judges claim that
what they have before them is not known to law. We will not want
anybody to sidetrack the rule of law for the rule of emotion.”