A senior advocate of Nigeria and respected senior lawyer, Chief Robert Clarke has alleged that the supreme court and its Justices are corrupt and comprised.
Clarke was responding to the escalating corruption saga involving the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen over allegations he failed to declare some of his domiciliary accounts.
The respected legal mind who traced the origin of corruption at the apex court to 2010 when the supreme court got involved in governorship election petitions following Justice Salami’s ( The then president of the court of Appeal) saga, stated the judges in the apex court allowed themselves to compromised by politicians.
Speaking while appearing on Channels Television programme on Sunday, Clarke said that the only reason the federal government took Onnoghen to the code of conduct tribunal was to expose the level of corruption at the supreme court given that the court lacked the juridiction to try the CJN.
Clarke said, ‘In the supreme court on political matters, the politician have corrupted the justices and they have accepted”.
‘Money has been changing hands in the supreme court and nobody can dispute that”.
‘Any senior lawyer who tells you he doesn’t know what is happening is a liar.’
Clarke who stated that many lawyers will not be happy with the disclosures he was making, described the money found in the CJN’s account as proceeds of corruption.
He said, ‘Where else did he get that kind of money from? I have practised law for almost all my life, you will not find ten thousand dollars in my account”.
He also emphasised the need to stamp out corruption in the country, especially in the judiciary given its role in the society.
Clarke said, ‘Corruption, especially in the judiciary must be tamed for the country to progress, infact it must be stopped for my children and your children to survive’.
The senior advocate, however, advised the government to withdraw the case from the code of conduct tribunal and petition the the National Judicial Council, NJC, now that the rot in the supreme court has been exposed to the whole world.
