JIBRIN OKUTEPA, SAN, URGES NIGERIAN LAWYERS AND JUDGES NOT TO USE TECHNICALITY TO KILL OUR DEMOCRACY 08-07-24
By Sadiq Aminu A legal luminary, Chief Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, has urged Nigerian lawyers and judges not to use technicality to destroy democracy in the Country.
Chief Okutepa stated this in Abuja during the first round table discussion organized by the Inter Party Advisory Council, IPAC with the theme ”The Role of the Judiciary in Nigeria’s Democratic Sustainability”
He said that the judiciary was the most important arm of government but where they abdicate their responsibilities on the altar of technicality, democracy would suffer.
Chief Okutepa advocated for the Supreme Court to revisit some of its decisions that were rooted in technicalities in electoral jurisprudence and in particular on subpoenaed witnesses in election petition cases.
In a remark, the former governor of Kano State and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress , APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje called on stakeholders in the democratic process to ensure that the judiciary remained free from external influences and interferences.
He called on politicians to support efforts to enhance transparency accountability and integrity within the judiciary to promote democratic sustainability.
The Chairman Inter Party Advisory Council, IPAC, Alhaji Yusuf Dantalle said IPAC decided to commence the discussion because the court was the Temple of Justice and its ministers are expected to be upright, men and women of integrity who would dispense justice no matter whose ox is gored.
‘’Priests in the temple of justice are expected to be God-fearing, courageous and fearless in the discharge of their constitutional duties, conscious of the fact that they sit in judgment over the affairs of fellow compatriots, acting on behalf of God who is the Judge of all’’
The Panelists advised INEC , the Political class and the judiciary to work towards the sustenance of democracy in the country.