Renowned constitutional lawyer, Itse Sagay, has said the accusation of corruption in the judiciary and cases where courts of the same jurisdiction give contradictory judgments have become worrisome.
Sagay made this known during an interview with The Sun.
The professor of Law averred that there is indiscipline among the judges, stressing there should be no reason for the judge to give another judgment contrary to what has been decided by a court of the same rank.
He called on the President of the Court of Appeal to insist that all cases should be filed at the area where the event occurred to avoid opponents from bribing the judges.
He said, “That is indiscipline among the judges. If a court has already decided a case and that court is of the same rank, there should be no reason for the judge to give another judgment contrary to it. The case should go up to a higher court. How can you have a case in Owerri and then you go to Kano to file at a Federal High Court in Kano and Law says all Federal High Courts are equal. That should not be allowed. For that, I blame the President of Court of Appeal, because if she had put her foot down that all matters should be dispensed in places where the event occurred, it will stop.
“You have an election matter in Port Harcourt, you rush to Kano to go and file another case and the Kano court seeing such oddity will still accept to allow the case to go on. This is indiscipline among the judiciary, and it shouldn’t be allowed. I think the President of the court should insist that all cases be filed in the area where the event occurred. She should issue a directive that all cases must be tried in the jurisdiction within which it occurred and not taken outside such jurisdiction. Things like this are leading to corruption where you go and buy the judge far away, and your opponent will go to another place to look for another judge to buy. It must not be allowed to continue.”
