NAN-H-89
Ultimatum
By Angela Atabo
Abuja, Aug. 29, 2017 (NAN) The Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER) has given the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) seven days to withdraw its report on judiciary as “second highest bribe-taker in Nigeria’’.
Executive Director of the organisation, Mr Frank Tietie, gave the ultimatum in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.
Tietie warned that CASER would take legal action against NBS if it failed to comply with the deadline.
He said that CASER viewed with serious concern the implication of the NBS report.
He explained that the demand for the withdrawal of the report was predicated on lack of evidence, describing it as “an unfounded extrapolation that lacked professional and statutory basis’’.
Tietie said that the report “merely pandered on a propagandist agenda to unfairly use the Nigerian judiciary as a scapegoat in the desperate fight against corruption.
“The details of the said report which were published by the various national and international media depict a very false conclusion which lacks evidence and constitutes a threat to national security.
“It is also an attempt to make the citizenry lose confidence in the all-important role of the judiciary which provides order, peace and stability through constitutionally backed means of dispute resolution.
“It is highly unpatriotic, unprofessional and uncharitable for a statutory body like the NBS to embark on an exercise which is outside its statutory objectives and functions.
“This exercise is calculated to reduce the value and public confidence in the all-important role of the judiciary in ensuring orderly and peaceful resolution of disputes in Nigeria.’’
He said that the NBS report was most incorrect and particularly gave a very false impression about Nigerian judges who constituted less than five per cent of the work force of the judiciary.
He said that CASER maintained that from time immemorial and to date, the Nigerian judiciary paraded in very large number, an array of men and women of very sound character and high integrity.
According to Tietie, these are judges who have given and continue to give dispassionate and meritorious judgments that can stand the test of judicial scrutiny anywhere in the world.
He said that the judges were courageous and brilliant and had made sound judicial pronouncements that had protected citizens’ fundamental human rights.
He said the pronouncements were especially against the highly oppressive public service with a class of politicians who had made life very difficult for ordinary Nigerians to attain a minimum standard of living.
“We have observed that the general perception of the judiciary by the Nigerian populace is that of respect and gratitude.
“Therefore, CASER does not accept that the Nigerian judiciary is inherently corrupt to the point of being the second highest bribe-taker in Nigeria.’’ (NAN)
ATAB/JEO/OPI
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Edited by Jane-Frances Oraka and Olisa Ifeajika