The proposed swift trial of the arrested Nigerian judges has suffered an impediment as petitions upon petitions flood DSS offices. The trial of seven suspected corrupt judges earlier slated for today has been shifted till next week to aggregate and articulate new petitions against the accused members of the judiciary.
The shift, according to top security officials involved in the matter, is to attend to new information thrown up by aggrieved litigants, who claimed that they lost huge sums of money to the suspects.
The source disclosed that since the suspects were arrested and their names made public by the Department of State Service, DSS, aggrieved victims of the suspects’ financial misdeeds had been coming forward with stunning revelations against them.
The agency said it could not overlook the new evidence being volunteered by Nigerians against the suspects and would only arraign them after going through the new petitions brought against the judges according to the Vanguard.
One of the top officials said: “We are almost through with the investigation of the judges. The ongoing investigation is not supposed to go beyond this week.
“We have written the National Judicial Council, NJC, about what has happened and we expect it to take some decisions on the affected judges this week.
“Once that is done, hopefully, by next week or thereabout, we should arraign them in court. For now, more facts in the form of petitions are trickling in about the judges. It’s like everyone who had cause to go to court for one reason or the other had been a victim.
“More facts are trickling in and we cannot ignore them. It is our statutory responsibility to investigate painstakingly, every complaint. Some victims have even indicated their readiness to testify in court.
“We assure the public that we will do a thorough job. We are investigating all the properties linked to them.
“The kind of things we observe as regards the forms they submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau is another kettle of fish.
The shift, according to top security officials involved in the matter, is to attend to new information thrown up by aggrieved litigants, who claimed that they lost huge sums of money to the suspects.
The source disclosed that since the suspects were arrested and their names made public by the Department of State Service, DSS, aggrieved victims of the suspects’ financial misdeeds had been coming forward with stunning revelations against them.
The agency said it could not overlook the new evidence being volunteered by Nigerians against the suspects and would only arraign them after going through the new petitions brought against the judges according to the Vanguard.
One of the top officials said: “We are almost through with the investigation of the judges. The ongoing investigation is not supposed to go beyond this week.
“We have written the National Judicial Council, NJC, about what has happened and we expect it to take some decisions on the affected judges this week.
“Once that is done, hopefully, by next week or thereabout, we should arraign them in court. For now, more facts in the form of petitions are trickling in about the judges. It’s like everyone who had cause to go to court for one reason or the other had been a victim.
“More facts are trickling in and we cannot ignore them. It is our statutory responsibility to investigate painstakingly, every complaint. Some victims have even indicated their readiness to testify in court.
“We assure the public that we will do a thorough job. We are investigating all the properties linked to them.
“The kind of things we observe as regards the forms they submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau is another kettle of fish.
This according to public commentators justifies the supposed 'military approach' employed by President Muhammadu Buhari to sanitize the judiciary of corrupt elements.
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