When the Supreme Court Rises against State Impunity?

POLITICAL NOTES

Following the raid on the Abuja residence of a Supreme Court Judge, Justice Mary Peter-Odili on Friday, October 29, 2021 , and the previous invasion of the residences of other justices of the apex court, particularly in October 2016, the apex court had last week warned that the Nigerian judiciary cannot only bark but also bite.

Unlike in the previous incidents of assaults on the rule of law when the judiciary seemed helpless and defenceless, the apex warned that individuals or institutions of government should stop seeing the judiciary as the weeping child among the three arms of government.

The statement signed by the Supreme Court’s Director of Press, Dr. Akande Festus, declared that “enough is enough,” saying the judiciary will henceforth not take any attack on it or its personnel lying low.

Describing the raid on Justice Odili’s home as impunity taken too far, the statement alleged that the dressing and countenance of those that invaded the home of Justice Odili depicted that of those going to war “to kill and maim”.

It warned that the Nigerian judiciary cannot only bark but also bite.

This present administration has no doubt regarded the judiciary as the weeping child among the three arms of government.

While judicial officers were harassed unchallenged, attempt by the state agents to harass the legislature cost the then Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) his job.

Having commenced its own discreet full scale investigations as to the main motive of those behind the attack, and the people behind the attack, the events of the next few weeks will reveal if the apex court truly has the capacity to bite, given the previous assaults on the judiciary, which were unchallenged.