Corrupt Judges Would Soon Be Prosecuted – Justice Umar

By Sule Aliyu, Bauchi
As the Judiciary grapples with the cases of corruption among judges in the country, the Hon. Chief Judge of Bauchi State, Justice Rabi Umar, has declared that corrupt Magistrate and Shariah Judges in Bauchi State will soon be sanctioned severely.
She said that the corrupt and indolent Judges are known and will therefore, be made to face the full wrath of the law.
Justice Umar, who stated this in a speech at the Bauchi State Judiciary 2017/2018 Legal Year at the State High Court Complex, however said that the best and incorruptible Judges will be rewarded.
She said: “I must recognize and commend the effort of the lower court Judges that is, the Magistrates and Shariah Court Judges. I assure you that efforts are being made to improve their welfare and condition of service.
“The best and incorruptible among them are known and the bad eggs are also known. Very soon, hard work and honest will be rewarded while indolence and corruption will be severely sanctioned.
“The Registrars and supporting staff are also recognized and appreciated for their various roles. Searchlight is also beamed on this category of staff to reward hard work and honesty and punish indolence and corruption.”
The Chief Judge said that the High Courts in Bauchi registered 406 civil and criminal cases, disposed 179 cases while 227 cases are pending. 737 motions were filed and registered, 491 disposed, leaving 246 pending.
She added that 3,611 criminal and civil cases were registered in the Magistrates and District Courts, 1,529 of them have been disposed off while 2,085 are going on.
According to her, the High Court generated a total revenue of N16, 820,070 explaining that the High Court collected N14,567,233 as fees, including probate fees while the Magistrate and District Courts realized N2,252,845.
She said that since assumption of office, several contracts for the renovation, upgrading and construction of High Courts and Magistrate Complex, Judicial Service Commission and some Shariah Courts were awarded for the Judiciary by the Governor adding that some are completed while others are ongoing.
She said that “even though there are approvals for the release of funds to the contractors, but releases were lately slowed and in some cases stopped which hampered the progress of work.
She commended the efforts of the Commissioner of Police for bringing down the rate of criminal activities in the State compared to the previous year.
Also speaking, the Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Haruna Mohammed, said that the Ministry received 975 criminal cases.
He explained that of these cases 423 have been disposed off, 384 are pending in various courts while 168 are at legal advice stage.
“Within the same period, we received a total of 167 civil cases, 73 have been disposed off, while 94 cased are pending in various courts.
“All cases sent to the Ministry of Justice by the Police for legal advice were treated with dispatch, thereby making it possible to reduce the number of waiting trials in our Prisons.”