A group of protesters are demanding that the judges who were indicted of corruption by the Department of State Security, DSS, should step aside until their innocence have been proven.

The protesters, under the aegis of Non-Governmental Organizations in Nigeria, FONGON, gathered at the premises of the Supreme Court on Wednesday wielding placards and calling on the National Judicial Council, NJC to allow the judges to be investigated.

Leader of the protesters, Comrade Wole Badmus described the NJC as hypocritical, adding that it encourages corruption.

“Judicial corruption is worse than economic corruption. A judge that freed a corrupt person or a thief after being compromised is only asking the thief to go and continue stealing,” Badmus said.

“From year 2000 till date, about 73 judges have been suspended by the NJC but none of them has been prosecuted all this years, what kind of double standard is this?”  he queried.

The FONGON chairman said that the NJC was wrong to have leaped to the defence of the indicted judges, when the same council had earlier sanctioned some of them over petitions bordering on corruption and judicial irregularities.

He also criticised the NJC ffor not speaking out since the issue surfaced, adding that their silence in this regard was not golden.

You will recall that the NJC had refused the recommendations of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, as well as that of the association of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, to ask the judges to step aside pending the determination of their innocence.

The council stated that the guidelines for suspension of judges were clear, adding that the NJC has not even received any formal petition by the DSS against the arrested judges.