Human rights activist and prominent member of the inner bar, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has condemned the Federal Government on its decision to keep judges in different levels of court in the country on the same salary for more than fifteen years.
He also blasted Lagos State Government over its refusal to settle the retirement benefits of retired judges in the state.
Ozekhome, who spoke exclusively with Vanguard, was reacting to a lawsuit instituted by a former judge of Lagos State, Justice Samuel Candide Johnson, and five others to demand for their retirement benefits.
He said it was unthinkable and scandalous that judges who toiled day and night for the country for years would not only be paid peanuts while they are in service but also be denied their lawful entitlements after retirement when the government knew that retired judges were not allowed to practice after leaving the bench.
The constitutional jurist said he was and still worried that while the system allowed judges to toil for the country for decades and retire into penury, huge funds were lavished on ex-presidents and ex-governors upon completion of their maximum eight year tenure in office.
Ozekhome, who said though he hated corruption with everything in him, wondered why any sensible person in government would be worried if judges took the path of corruption when the Judicial officers knew that upon retirement, they had no home to retire to, like their counterparts in the other arms of government and that their retirement benefits were not likely to be paid.
The rights activist said he was full of sympathy for the judges, particularly Justice Candide Johnson, whom he said was doing well in private practice before signing himself into penury with Lagos State government.
His words: “Justice Candide Johnson was a very successful legal practitioner. We had some cases we were handling against each other. Some of the cases were in Lagos. Some were in Abuja.
“The day he went to the bench, I remember when I went to Lagos, I went to see him. I said ‘I can’t understand, you are an illustrious, very successful legal practitioner. Why have you decided to go to the bench?
“The truth is that I have always liked the judiciary. I have always loved the bench. And I want to go to the bench and dispense Justice. I have always loved to be a judge.
“I know we came all the way together from University of Ife, now OAU in the 70s. I remember when Candide Johnson and one Kunle Fagbure contested for the position of Director of Culture and Social in student Union Government at Ife in the 70s, Candide Johnson won.
“He was the Director of Social and Culture. It was one of the most contested elections in the history of Ife. He had already been a successful student before becoming a successful lawyer.
“Then consider a man now goes to the bench to serve his country, and he is retiring from the bench a pauper, hardly able to feed himself and his family, to the extent that he was now forced to go to court.
“That is a very sad commentary on our country. It is a sad commentary on our judicial system. It is a sad commentary on our justice delivery system. “
Credit: THE VANGUARD.
