The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has described as cheap blackmail the allegations making the rounds against the country’s judiciary, urging politicians that lost out at the elections petition tribunal not to throw caution to the wind.
Fagbemi, who spoke on the sidelines of a prayer session organised for him by his family on Saturday in his country home Ijagbo, Oyun local government area of Kwara state, admonished politicians to stop making unfounded insinuations against the judges, adding that anybody that has concrete evidence against any judge should feel free to bring it forward.
He said: “You lost at the tribunal, you lost at the Appeal Court and at the Supreme Court, yet you are insinuating foul play. I think even apart from law, morality also demands that you take the outcome as it is.
“I am not saying that judges cannot be wrong because they are human beings. Where anybody sees or feels that the course of justice has been perverted, feel free to bring it forth rather than making unfounded insinuations.
“Unless you are able to bring forth concrete evidence, I will not succumb to blackmail. Nobody will shield an earring judge. One thing about justice is that the man who wins will praise the judgment. The person who loses will never agree that he has lost fairly unless you give him the judgment.
“Don’t forget, when you make unfounded insinuations, you are dragging the name of the nation in the mud. I, therefore, urge all and sundry to imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship.”
The Minister also appealed to Nigerians to give President Tinubu a chance to turn around the fortunes of the country, adding that Tinubu is not looking at the immediate benefits of his administration’s efforts, but to the long term benefits.
“That is why I appeal to all and sundry to give him the chance.
“He is a man who is ready to do the thing. It takes a while to see the full effect of his efforts.
“He is not the one who created these problems in Nigeria, but he is not complaining. President Tinubu is somebody who wants to work. He is prepared to do the job. He is not somebody who is just learning the job. He has done it before in Lagos State, though I am not equating Lagos with Nigeria.
“Immediately after his swearing in he has been all out to seek investors’ buy in. As a result, positive responses have been trailing his discussions with foreign investors. The only thing we need is to exercise some patience. Even if you plant a tree, it won’t grow into fruition until after awhile,” he added.
On judiciary reforms, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria revealed that he had used the platform of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) to make the Governors come on board, adding that the Federal Government would also engage judges at both Federal and the state government levels.
He said: “What I have done is to seek the platform of NGF to address all the governors in Nigeria as to what they are required to do if anything is being done at the level of the Federal Government. We expect that the state within their limited resources will key into it.
“Another thing is that we need to engage the judges. Because it is one thing to make laws, it is another thing to administer it. We also need to engage the chief judges especially at the state level. We need uniformity without necessarily turning the country into a unitary system.”
