(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2618253/ForumPhotos/Dimeji%20Bankole.jpg)The House of Representatives announced yesterday that it has launched an investigation into the allegation of corruption rocking the nation's Judiciary.
This announcement came just as the House concluded another amendment exercise on the 1999 Constitution, making the Industrial Court a court of superior records.
A member, Igo Aguma, (PDP, Rivers State) raised the allegation of corruption in the Judiciary on the floor of the House yesterday and urged his colleagues not to allow the matter to be swept under the carpet.
According to him, the allegation made by President, Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, were too grave to be ignored.
Aguma said the Judiciary, being the last hope for the common man in search of Justice, should be carefully guarded from possible threats of destruction.
But Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole, quickly interrupted the motion by informing his colleagues that he had received briefing that the House Committee on Justice had initiated an investigation into the matter.
Bankole advised members to wait for the outcome of that committee's investigation before taking any further step on the matter.
"Honourable members, it was only this morning that the Chairman of our committee on Justice, Henry Seriake-Dickson, informed me that the committee was already looking into the matter. And I believe the committee is competent enough to handle it. My advice is that we should hold on until the committee conclude its work on the matter," Bankole said.
Following Salami's application for the withdrawal of the suit he filed against his elevation to the Supreme Court, the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, on Wednesday struck out the suit.
Salami predicated his decision to drop the suit on the intervention of Nigerians of goodwill and stakeholders in the justice sector.
In an affidavit in support of the suit, which Salami deposed to personally, he also claimed that Chief Justice of the Federation, Aloysius Katsina-Alu, asked him to compromise the Court of Appeal's verdict on the protracted Sokoto State governorship election petition by either disbanding the original panel, which he (Katsina-Alu) believed was about to give a verdict against the governor or direct the panel to give judgment in the state chief executive's favour.
Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, drew the attention of the House to the fact that 32 State Houses of Assembly had passed resolutions in support of an earlier amendment of Section 6(5) of the Constitution to make the Industrial Court a superior court of records.
The resolutions were immediately adopted by the House without any voice of dissent.
Source: Reps probe alleged graft in judiciary (http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38982:reps-probe-alleged-graft-in-judiciary-&catid=1:national&Itemid=559)