By Abdulaziz Abdulaziz
Abuja
By Tope Musowo
Lagos
A Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Coalition group has thrown its weight behind President Muhammad Buhari’s anti-graft war, sounding a note of warning to all corrupt judges and collaborators that Nigerians need clean bench to drive Democratic reforms.
The group, led by its convener, Abiona Desmond, staged a peaceful protest in front of the Lagos High Court, Alausa, stressing the need for full purge of the judiciary as many heinous crimes had been perpetrated in land, while the justice-dispensing body looked the other way having been allegedly compromised.
They maintained that the seven judges who were recently arrested by the DSS need be properly investigated and if found culpable, dealt with appropriately to serve as deterrence for other likely erring judges who subvert the course of justice.
“There must be no place for corrupt judges in this country. We need a clean bench to drive democratic reforms.
“We mourn not just because these judicial officers have been fooling us. We mourn because they were still able to get gullible citizens that are fighting for them by condemning the sequence of events and the process of their arrests,” he said.
Abiona raised eyebrow on why some Nigerians still had the temerity to criticize an arrest executed with a valid warrant, challenging those judges indicted or arrested to dare come to equity with clean hands.
They also said: “Corrupt judges are the high priests that pronounce the final blessing on stolen funds for treasury looters to go enjoy their spoils in peace and comfort. It is they who grant perpetual orders that restraint thieves from being arrested to answer for their crimes.”
The group demanded that all judges indicted or arrested for corruption by DSS tender their resignation.