When A Judge Plays God

On Tuesday, September 15, 2015 somewhere in the fast developing town of Sango Ota, Osun State, a mere mortal arrogated onto himself the power of the Almighty God. Because he wears a wig and gown and sits on a big leather chair on an elevated platform to adjudicate over cases assigned to him, he foolishly thinks he is God and wants to equate himself with God in the affairs of man! Okey, maybe because he is addressed as “Your Lordship”. But he should ask Lucifer who attempted to equate himself with the Almighty God and what has become of him ever since. The holy books do not mince words on this, the position of God on it is very clear, unambiguous and declarative. He says “I am God, there is no other god beside me”. So, it is foolhardy for any mortal, regardless of the position and power to play God in the life of his fellow mortals.
Amazingly, this high court judge in Ota, Ogun State, threw caution to the wind, the power and pride of earthly judge got the better part of him. This judge has a funny name, apparently this is why I cannot readily recall it. As much as I tried, the name keeps on escaping my memory. However, it is better forgotten than remembered. On that fateful Tuesday, this power-drunk judge bullied and talked down on harmless and innocent journalists who were on legitimate duty in his court after bellowing out an order that they be forcefully detained for over three hours for “invading my court”. Yes, judges have enormous powers, yet, they are not God even if they have the power of life and death over their fellow mortals. They are expected to excercise these powers with caution and utmost responsibility.
Hear this judge whose “private court” was “invaded” by the journalists : The arrogance is, to say the least, neausating. “ I put you under arrest. You are under arrest. You will discover that this compound is fenced round, is that not so? It is not on the major road that you can just come in. If you are representing the public interest, you must know that we have a head in this court. I am a judge, I have unlimited jurisdiction in the state. I can even say somebody should be arrested without question, but in excecising my power, I have to enquire into many things. You cannot say because you are representing public interest, you can just burst into my compound or into my house. You have a right as a journalists, but where your own stops, my own starts. And if I am the owner of a house, I have a right to my privacy, fundamental right to privacy. I want to educate you. If you want to infringe on my rights that is where your own rights stop…….. “What I am saying is that the judiciary has its own rights too. You are infringing on our own rights too, you don’t know? A report came to me that some people invaded the court, claiming that they are journalists, filming the whole place. It is not a local market and it is not an open market. You are approaching the court. If you are interested in a particular matter in a company, will you just go into the place and start filming and then say you are a journalists? That is what I am telling you. You don’t just go into a place and start filming and then say you are a journalist. If we said you are trespassing into our land, do you have any defence , answer me now? I am telling you that it is not a public place, I am telling you, the court is not a public place.”
That is the almighty judge talking like the Almighty Himself. The seven journalists representing different print media houses but one were in the court in Ota to report two matters slated for hearing that morning. I must say that they were there not in thair private capacity but assigned officially by their organisations to cover the cases in the interest of the public. This is a constituttional burden placed on the journalist which must be discharged without fear or favour. Unfortunate, in this intance, his lordship felt otherwise. He saw their coming to the court as an intrusion into his private life! He says the court is not a public place. Has his lordship suddenly forgotten that the court is built and maintained with public funds? His very self and the entire judiciary staff are paid and maintained with public funds. In case his lordship has forgoten, he needs to be reminded that the court is a public place, a place for all as long as you comport yourself properly. Luckily, in his own very address to his captors before their eventual release, there is nowhere he accused them of behaving unruly as to constitute public nuisance in his court. Rather, he said they were filming the court( not the court in session), apparently the court premises. I am really at pains to understand how filming a court premises constitutes an offence, especially when it is done before or after the court’s sitting. The matters for which they were in court were those involving victims of demolished properties in Pakoto community and the killing that occurred in Oko-Ore area, both in Ogun State. If his lordship has nothing to hide, he should have thrown his court open for all or give a prio notice that the cases would be conducted in camera. It’s however within his powers to decide whether a case be heard in camera or otherwise. Since he did not expressly say so, what he did to those Innocent Seven tantamounts to unlawful arrest or abduction. That is, an abridgement of their constitutional rights to freedom. By that action, he has turned the temple of justice to temple of injustice.
Flowing from the foregoing therefore, the Committee for Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ and the Movement Against Corruption and Injustice, MACI should go beyond their mere verbal condemnation and do the needful. This judge must be made to eat the humble pie by publicly apologising to these journalists and their organizations or be sued. This is the era of CHANGE, so, he must be told in the language he would understand that impunity has no place in this government.