New Telegraph

Olanipekun To Judges: Law’s your master, not Buhari or Govs

A legal luminary, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), has appealed to judges in the country to let the law be their ultimate boss instead of the President or Governors. According to Olanipe-kun, for the law profession to maintain its height, the executive, particularly politicians, must allow the judiciary to function without interference.

He stated this yesterday in Akure, Ondo State capital, while delivering a lecture entitled “Judicial Responsiveness as a Staple Panacea for Social Malady” in honour of the retiring Chief Judge of the state, Justice Williams Akinrotoye. Olanipekun stressed that there can be no genuine separation of powers between the legislature, executive and the judiciary if the judiciary is not truly independent. He said: “It is my view under the present dispensation; the judiciary appears more independent at the Federal level than at the State level. “This cannot be said unequivocally for most of the states in Nigeria for, as between some state governors qua chief executives and their chief judges, it is a similitude of master and servant relationship, where unconstitutionally and illegally, some governors believe that they can fire through their legislatures, their chief judges. “It is also becoming the norm in a good number of our states that judges dare not give judgments against the interests of their governors or states, irrespective of the position of the facts and law.

“The governors also see themselves as the lords of manor, emperors of a sort and demi-gods over their respective chief judges, and in the recent past, many governors have attempted to humiliate and disgrace their chief judges out of office, but for the timely intervention and restoration of sanity by the Supreme Court and the National Judicial Council.” While frowning on the discrimination in the retirement ages of high court judges and their counterparts in Appeal Court and Supreme Court, Olanipekun asked: “But why is a judge of the high court retiring at age 65 and not 70?”

“These nuances creep into the legal profession and, unfortunately, despite our claim to being learned, we do not do any research on how our equilibrium has been distorted or goal post changed midway.” On his part, Justice Akinrotoye who was retiring at 65 stated that the only way to make the judiciary to be totally independent was to ensure that it is not financially dependent on the executive. Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Olugbenga Ale, disclosed that the state has been supporting the judiciary in the state where necessary.

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