In apparent expression of frustration at the manner the judiciary has handled cases of alleged treasury looters, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr. Ibrahim Magu has said that the judiciary harbours the worst criminals in Nigeria
Speaking while delivering a paper entitled ‘This is our chance’ at a symposium organised by members of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers held Lagos at the weekend, Magu said in the course of his anti-graft war, he had come across a gang of rogue elements who had given a bad name to the bar and the bench.
“The biggest form of corruption is not the ones you find in government offices or banks; it is not the one that is plaguing the oil industry or pension administration. The biggest, most virulent form of corruption that ever existed is the one that has eaten deep into the fabric of the temple of justice.
“It is to you who minister in the temple of justice that we all run to -high or low, mighty or weak, lawmakers, law breakers and law enforcers. It is to the courts that we all run, for protection.
“However, we are all witnesses to the abuse of skills, knowledge, powers, position and privileges by a few rogue elements, who, whilst being a tiny fraction, have an outsized influence on the direction of the Nigerian judiciary and indeed, the Nigerian nation,’’ said Magu.
The EFCC chairman therefore appealed to anyone who is not happy with the state of affairs in the country to team up with the commission to rid the country of corruption.
Magu denounced the notion that EFCC wields enormous powers saying the commission had always been operating within the confines of the law.
In his response, the executive secretary, presidential advisory committee against corruption, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, said the time had come for the judiciary to come clean it was time for the judiciary to rid itself of the corruption stigma.