The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, says there’s nothing to stop security agents from raiding the homes of judicial officers, as long as the proper procedures are followed.
Last month’s outrageous raid on the home of Supreme Court Justice, Mary Odili, has resurfaced criticism of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s regard for the judicial arm of government.
Police authorities have since then claimed that the raid was carried out by a gang of non-state actors who fraudulently obtained a valid court order from a chief magistrate.
Keyamo called the raid ‘completely condemnable’ during a televised interview on Sunday, November 28, 2021, calling for the perpetrators to be brought to book.
His reaction prompted a recollection of the Buhari government’s sanctioned raid on the home of multiple senior judges in 2016 in a bid to gather evidence of corruption.
The minister then noted that a judge’s home can be validly raided as long as security agencies already have credible evidence of criminal conduct against the target.
“If there’s credible evidence of criminal conduct of anybody, whether judge or justice of the Supreme Court, it is not illegal to get a valid warrant to retrieve your evidence,” the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said.
To validate his position, Keyamo said such is also done in the United States which is considered the ‘standard bearer of human rights’.
The minister went on to claim that President Buhari has done the most of any other civilian leader to liberate the judiciary, particularly noting his signing of Executive Order 10 mandating financial autonomy for state judiciary.
