judges, who are being investigated over large scale
corruption.
This is just as the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, moves in to take over the matter
from where the council stops.
Source learnt that that already the commission's operatives had established enough evidence of corruption against seven of the affected judges and was ready to charge them to court any moment from now.
The Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde,
is reported to have visited the Chief Justice of Nigeria
and given the assurance that the judges would be
charged as soon as the NJC concluded its findings on
them.
Source learnt yesterday that the CJN had however asked the panels probing the judges to give them 'fair hearing' in the discharge of their assignment.
It was gathered that the directive by the CJN to the
panels to ensure that each of the suspects were heard
out, was responsible for the delay in the meeting of the
NJC to ratify the verdict of the panels.
It was learnt that the Supreme Court would first meet on
the matter before an enlarged meeting of the NJC to take
a final decision on the fate of the affected judicial
officers.
Findings by Source showed that the panels, which sat on the petitions raised against the judges found almost all of them culpable and accordingly recommended that they be reprimanded by the judiciary to serve as a deterrent to others in the system.
A top judiciary source told Source that the CJN was eager to see an end to the matter, which has impinged negatively on the image of the judiciary.
"But what is clear is that the CJ also wants to call the
bluff of the affected judicial officers and see to the end of
the matter before her retirement towards the end of the
year.
The suspected judges are from the State and Federal
High courts as well as the Court of Appeal.
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