Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Mahmud Muhammed has described the raids carried out by Department of State Service, DSS, on the homes of Judges over the weekend as “saddening and deeply regrettable.”

The CJN said this on Monday during a valedictory court sitting in honour of Justice Suleiman Galadima, in Abuja.

Mohammed, urged Nigerians to be calm and prayerful, saying that an emergency meeting of the National Judicial Council, NJC, will take place on Tuesday, during which the issues will be properly analysed.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has rejected the explanation by President Muhammadu Buhari on the raids carried out by DSS.

The president in a statement by his media adviser, Garba Shehu, had said that the raids on the judges residence was an assault on corruption and not on the judiciary, adding that the operation followed due process.

NBA president, Abubakar Mahmud, said that the NBA’s position was not to protect the judge’s but to stand up against corruption.

According to him, the DSS should not be the ones to undertake the operations.

Referring to the incident in Ghana where some of the country’s judges were arrested for alleged bribery, Mahmud said the events in Ghana took two years of investigations before the Judges were arrested and did not follow the Gestapo action of the DSS.