Good elements outnumber bad in judiciary, says ex-appeal court president

Umaru Abdullahi, former president of the court of appeal, has said the bad elements in the Nigerian judiciary are not as many as the good.

Abdullahi made the remark on Saturday during a public presentation of the journal on Private and Comparative Law, organised in his honour by the faculty of law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

According to him, the Nigerian judiciary has come of age as a very solid institution.

He said that in any human society, there must be good, bad and worst elements.

“So, the judiciary is a human and Nigerian institution. Therefore, it is not surprising that some few judicial officers are being picked up for going out of their parameters of judicial function.”

He said the judiciary had been delivering services to the continuity of the country and was in the forefront in providing solutions to some of the problems facing the country.

“We are not disputing the fact that there is no bad element in the judiciary, but not all in the system are bad. If you compare the number of the bad ones, the good ones out-number the bad ones.”

Abdullahi said it was unfair to condemn the judiciary because of the few bad seeds, noting that there is no sector in Nigeria that was insulated from corruption.

“There is the machinery the government can use effectively to flush out bad elements in the judiciary.”

Abdullahi added that the government also has the machinery to ensure that only credible persons were appointed as judges.

Zainab Bulkachuwa, president, court of appeal, said the judiciary had been trying its best in the fight against corruption.

“We have our code of conduct the judicial officer is expected to abide with, If you see anything different from our code of conduct, that officer would have gone astray.

“If you go strictly by the code of conduct you can’t go wrong; So, we are committed to the fight against corruption,” she said.