POWERS OF ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION DEPARTMENT FOR STATE SECURITY SERVICE AND PROSECUTION OF SERVING JUDICIAL OFFICERS

Abstract

In all civilized societies, governance is based on a tripartite structure mainly toachieve success and  ensure  accountability.  Nigeria  as  an  independent  sovereign  state  in  the  West  African  sub-region is not exempted and operates her state with three arms of government created under the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended in 2011. The arms are vested with the  powers  and  functions  of  law  making  (legislature)  implementation  of  the  laws  made (executive) and interpretation of the laws (judiciary). Each of the arms of government above act as  a  watch  dog  over  the  activities  of  the  other  and  through  this  sanity  can  be  maintained  in polity.  However,  where  any  of  the  arms  abuse  its  powers,  the  impact  is  usually  negative  and devastating.  The  judiciary  arm  of  the  government  of  Nigeria  has  recently  come  under  serious attack  nationwide  and  the  judicial  officers  both  in  the  lower  courts  and  the  appellate  courts  of records  have  been  accused  of  corrupt  practices,  bribery,  self  enrichment  and  fraudulent obtaining of benefits under the disguise of employment and others. The issue of the decay in the Nigerian  Judiciary  became  so  controversial  that  at  a  point  it  was  seen  as  a  phenomenon. However,  in  2017  the  executive  through  its  two  agencies,  the  Economic  and  Financial  Crimes Commission  and  the  Department  for  State  Security  in  answer  to the  popular  call  by  many Nigerians over the corruption in the Judiciary damned the consequences and effected the arrest and investigation of serving judicial officers in Nigeria and for the first time Nigeria commenced prosecution  of  serving  judges  on  various  allegations  of  crime  and  other  acts  seen  to  be misconduct  of  such  officers  in  discharge  of  their  official  functions.  This  paper  among  other things  aimed  at  reviewing  the  powers  of  Economic  and  Financial  Crimes  Commission  and Department  for  State  Security  to  arrest,  investigate  and  possibly  prosecute  serving  judicial officers  in  Nigeria  for  acts  committed  in  discharge  of  their  official  duties  within  the  laws creating the agencies and the Nigerian Constitution. From the study, it is our findings that under the law in Nigeria, serving Judicial Officers can be arrested, investigated and prosecuted for any of their act which is criminalized by any written law in Nigeria.