I write this piece as a criminal defense attorney with more
than 20 years criminal trial experience in 2 continents, Africa and North
America. I am also writing out of my desire to see the development of criminal
judicature that can stand the test of time in a developing country like
Nigeria. It is my hope that the Chief Justice of Nigeria will take another look
at the recent decision by Justice Fabiyi in the Saraki v CCT case with a view
of righting the procedural wrong and the inevitable floodgates it opens soon
after we join other commonwealth countries in outlawing mindless
interlocutory stay of proceedings in criminal trials.
Very few common law countries permit a criminal defendant to
scuttle their criminal trials through a labyrinth of jejune and inconsequential
interlocutory appeals as we used to have before the ACJA 2015. The gains we
made with the combined provisions of Sections 306 & 396 (2) of that Act is
effectively lost through the “tarry awhile” decisions of the highest court in
the land. The decision becomes more baffling when the court refused to set an
exact date for review of its decisions. What is more, the Supreme Court justice
who read the lead judgment effectively retires in 2 weeks.
The ludicrous excuse that lead prosecuting attorney
acquiesce in the order is “non sequitor”. What was he supposed to do? A curious
reading of the entire proceedings clearly shows that the court has made up its
mind to grant the wishes of the rich senior advocate representing the very rich
senate president.
This is one moment where I sorely miss the activism of the
late Alao Aka-Bashorun era as NBA president. What if every criminal defense
attorney in Nigeria sought a stay of proceedings in each and every pending
cases where they are challenging the jurisdiction of the court? Or is that
right only available to senior advocate of Nigeria an afluent senate president.
What is more baffling is how some severely compromised legal
practitioners in Nigeria are criticizing the well informed opinion of the Femi
Falana SAN and Professor Itse Sagay. It got so ludicrous that one of them went
as far as minimizing the “raison detre” for the existence of the Code of
Conduct Tribunal. They say it was a vehicle to punish politicians for mistakes
made in completion of forms! And yet these are people that want us to take our
laws seriously. If the CCT is not important why do we go as far as enshrining it
in our constitution?
One thing is certain we now know the senior advocate of the
Nigerian masses and those who are SANs for filthy lucre. The latter are the
reasons why we may never be able to conquer the hydra headed monster of
corruption in our land. They are gunslinger for hire. They never do any
“probono” work to help the poor in our courts but they are always available to
help launder politician’s ill gotten wealth through huge legal bills. They will
always win in court and when we call them out on their shenanigans we will be
accused of slandering the integrity of the courts. They may have won but we
have hope on our side.
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