Flays NBA president over confusing statement
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, has criticiced the National Judicial Commission, NJC, for keeping mute over the startling revelation by Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa which indicted his wife, a retired President of the Appeal Court.
Senator Bulkachuwa who represented Bauchi North in the 9th Senate, had during the valedictory session of the Senate last week, shocked Nigerians when he confessed that he used to influence judgments delivered by his wife, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, to favour his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The shocking revelation has been generating reactions across the country with many calling for his arrest and further interrogations as well as the review of all judgments delivered by the retired Justice.
Professor Odinkalu who took to his Twitter handle, queried the rationality behind the silence of the NJC on the controversial revelation after its 102nd statutory meeting on Wednesday.
The Rights activist also carpeted the Nigeria Bar Association for hurriedly calling for the arrest of Senator Bulkachuwa instead of pressuring NJC which he is a member, to quickly initiate a probe of the retired Justice Bulkachuwa.
He suspected a foul play over NBA’s rush to call for the former Senator’s arrest instead of pushing for the investigation of the wife whose indictment has cast a bad image on the Nigeria judiciary.
Below is Odinkalu’s post on his Twitter handle: “Yesterday, the @njcNig rose from its 102nd statutory meeting without saying a word on the confessions #ChezBulkachuwa. Instead, the president of @NigBarAssoc, @YCMaikyauSAN, himself a member of the NJC issued this statement which had elements of the odd & bizarre.
“The @NigBarAssoc president describes Adamu Bulkachuwa as guilty of “disgusting & despicable conduct” & took liberty to announce that the @njcNIG “condemned the actions of the senator in the strongest terms….” There are many problems with this statement. Let me point out a few:
“1st, it’s not clear what “conduct” the NJC purportedly condemned: the fact that Adamu Bulkachuwa confessed or the acts he confessed to. As to the former, he was a beneficiary of Parliamentary privilege; as to the latter, the NJC cannot condemn what it’s chosen not to investigate.
“2nd, it is odd that the president of @NigBarAssoc shd presume to issue a statement for @njcNIG. Although he is a member of the NJC, he is not its chairperson or presiding officer nor its spokesperson. The capacity in which he announced the NJC’s condemnation is dubious:
“Third, if @njcNIG can’t condemn what it has not investigated & the president of @NigBarAssoc can’t become spokesperson of the NJC without proper appointment, it shd be clear, 3rdly, that any claim about him on the “integrity & independence of the judiciary” are a set up.
“What seems clear on the face of this statement is this: the @njcNIG met & failed, refused, or neglected to adopt a position on the most serious issue affecting judicial integrity in #Nigeria. The president of @NigBarAssoc, which is on the NJC, then issued a statement as cover up.
“If anything is “disgusting & despicable,” this is it. The fact that the @njcNIG is unwilling & unable to as a statutory & constitutional body to establish the factual bases for issuing a condemnation in this circumstance stands as damnation of that body under current leadership.
“Let’s be clear: @njcNIG as the institution responsible to investigate the facts of what Adamu Bulkachuwa said & its effects on the judicial system, has instead chosen to #Unlook. This is a disgrace. They spit at the judicial independence & integrity that they claim to defend.”
