Jibrin Sam Okutepa ( SAN ) Laments On The State of Nigerian Judiciary System, Emphasizing “Disobedience To Court Orders”

It is no longer news that court orders are disobeyed unabated in this era more than ever before.

Punch Newspaper who accused President Muhammadu Buhari of dictatorship recently also reported that Mr President has disobeyed court orders forty one time (41) and still counting since he assumed office in 2015.

Continuous detention of those vindicated by Court are facts according to Punch Newspaper.

In that direction, Jibrin Sam Okutepa ( SAN ), has also lamented on the continuous disobey to court orders saying
” There Cannot Be Development Where Court Orders Are Not Obeyed”, adding that, “The hygiene of justice is polluted by so many factors”.

Let us read Jibrin Sam Okutepa ( SAN ) as culled from his official Facebook page:

” My passion and zeal for undiluted justice in our courts and respect for law and order is informed by the fact that without justice, law and order no society can develop.

There cannot be development in the jungle.

There cannot be peace where: “The law is given so that the rich and the powerful can remain lawless, above the law, and punish the poor”.

We must speak out and to the power that be too.

There cannot be development where court orders are not obeyed.

There cannot be development where the judiciary is silenced or judicial timidity is infused in judicial officers.

There cannot be development where the judiciary set road blocks for justice through impossible principles set thereby.

In countries that are developed judiciary is an equal partner in governance and no other arm of government acts in sabotage of judicial arm.

As a people we must do all we can to give justice to Nigeria and Nigerians no matter what.

We cannot develop where there is tyranny in either of the three branches of government.

Where governmental affairs are conducted at the whims and caprice of the power that be or judgments are ditched out devoid of justice, anarchy takes over.

No society can develop in anarchy and chaos.

We must find and give justice to our people if we hope to develop as a nation.

If we keep acting as if we are still in stone age, we shall be left behind by the developed countries who daily show respect for the rule of law, law and order and due process.

This is my take”

In part two of his post, Jibrin Sam Okutepa ( SAN ) also said, “Until we resolved as a people to give justice to our people in courts we shall continue to have judgments devoid of justice in courts.

The hygiene of justice is polluted by so many factors.

The beneficiaries of these factors take maximum advantage of pollution to the prejudice of undiluted justice.

Due to these pollutions many in public offices engage in extraordinary misconduct and no institutions can hold them accountable.

Even the institution that has constitutional duty to hold those who breached our laws accountable is in a deliberate dilemma of decisions and always play safe for its own safety.

How on earth do you expect eye witnesses to infractions of our electoral processes in the face of gunshots and helicopters bombing electoral malfeasance to come forward to testify to electoral frauds in his or her polling units.

The principles we set are not attainable within human limits.

We must either go for democracy or we engage in selectocracy based on force and not performance.

There is no need deceiving ourselves.

We want democracy but we are not ready to follow and imbibe the correct attributes of democracy.

So sad!

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I think we are not serious in Nigeria when it comes to critical sectors of our society.

The most crucial sector of any society is the justice sector.

In any society where there are no consequences for breach of the laws, that society wouldnt make progress.

In Nigeria it appears the political class has studied our justice system and it is taken advantage of the system.

Imagine the Supreme Court handling 15 Governorship appeals on it’s cause list in a day.

By constitutional arrangements Nigerian Supreme Court hears all manners of appeals.

I wonder how these justices cope.

I pity them!

They are overwhelmed and overworked.

They are humans.

How do they cope?

How do they read the briefs and records?

We are just not serious!

We just want to blame the judges for failure of justice when the system does not want justice in our courts.

I am pissed off!

There is injustice everywhere and the system that can give justice has been strangulated in giving justice by system that is skewed in favour of injustice.

Now I know why democracy cannot work within the meaning of the word in Nigeria.

I am sick and tired of our systems”.

Jibrin Sam Okutepa
Senior Advocate Of Nigerian (SAN
Abuja – Nigeria

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