JUDGES wield enormous power. They behave like kings when they hold court. In one word, they can do and undo. But in using their wide powers, they are expected to do so with the fear of God. A judge cannot say because he has the power of life and death, he should just send people to the gallows for the fun of it. Before arriving at such a decision, his lordship must have heard the convict and satisfied himself that the man actually committed the offence for which he is being condemned.
The court is a temple of justice and not injustice. It is not a forum for judges to abuse people’s right with impunity just because they have the power to do so. The power judges wield is given to them by the Constitution. So, everything they do must be constitutional. As conservatives, judges view things from a tiny prism. To many of them, any other person cannot be trusted. They perceive people, except those close to them in bad light and before you say judge, you may end up in jail when you come across a judge on a day he is in foul mood. If you think I am wrong, ask The NationOgun State Correspondent Ernest Nwokolo and his colleagues what they went through in the hands of a judge in Ota on Tuesday.
Should judges who sit in judgement over others be hasty in drawing conclusions about people? The answer is no. But in many instances, some judges have been known to let their emotions get the better of them in their dealings with others. They just look at you and feel that they should deal with you, perhaps, because they do not like your face. Judges should have it at the back of their minds that no matter how powerful they think they are, there is a Judge up there more powerful than them and once that Judge speaks, there is no appeal. Their job does not entail that they should play god, but once in a while, they tend to do so forgetting that God is inimitable.
Once God speaks, that is the end of the matter. No judge on earth can question His action. But when our earthly judges vibrate, we the lesser mortals can still query their actions if we feel they have encroached on our right. Judges are expected to be defenders and not abusers of people’s rights. They are judges in order to make society work, and not to turn things upside down with actions unbecoming of their exalted position. If court clerks and registrars do not know their right from their left, judges are expected to know better. They should guide these people and not join them in abusing the rights of those who come to court.
For all the years that I covered the courts, I was never accosted by any judge for having the temerity to come to a ‘’private place’’, which was how the Ota, Ogun State High Court judge defined the court to Nwokolo and co. Is the court a public or private place? The court cannot be a private place, by any standard because it is where parties take their disputes to for adjudication. It is open to litigants and non-litigants alike. People are allowed to come to court to watch proceedings as long as they comport themselves. If they do not, they are made to pay the price for their contemptuous act. Is it contemptuous for journalists to come to court to cover proceedings? It is not. If it is, we will not be reading about many court cases in the papers.
Are journalists expected to register their presence in court before covering a case? I do not know the practice now, but when I was a judiciary reporter, I just went in and out of court, covering cases that caught my fancy. And I was not for once harassed by court officials. But whatever the practice may be today, it cannot approve of the kind of treatment meted out to Nwokolo and his friends, who went to cover a case at the Ota High Court on Tuesday. Nwokolo, Daud Olatunji (Vanguard), Samuel Awoyinfa (The Punch), Abiodun Taiwo (Daily Times), Sulaiman Fasasi (National Pilot), Wale Adelaja (TVC) and Johnson Akinpelu (Alaroye) were in court for two cases. The first was on victims of a demolition in Pakoto community and the other on killings in Oke – Ore community.
Shortly after their arrival, the female Assistant Court Registrar reportedly accosted them, demanding their mission. She wanted to know if they had a letter from the chief judge or a senior judiciary officer to enter the court. Does it mean that everybody, including litigants and members of the audience, must obtain permission before entering the courts in Ogun State? For three hours – 11.45 am – 2.44pm – this all-powerful woman caused the reporters to be detained in a room on the judge’s order. Before releasing the ‘insolent’ reporters, the judge, in his imperial magistracy, dressed them down, while delivering an homily :
‘’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 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 exercising 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 burst into my house. You have a right as a journalist, 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 right that is where your own right stops…
‘’What I am saying is that judiciary has its own right too. You are infringing on our own right 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 journalist? 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 it is not a public place; I am telling you, the court is not a public place.’’ After the 25-minute sermon, his lordship set his captives free.
Was there any need for the show put up by his lordship? The Ota High Court is not his lordship’s private property and the courts generally can never be the private property of any judge. Courts are built with public funds for public use, but if a judge wishes to hear a matter in private, he can do so without venting his spleen on innocent members of the public. Why will a judge receive a report that journalists had ‘’invaded his court and were filming the whole place’’ and just order that they be detained without hearing from them? What happened to fair hearing, a principle, which his lordship must uphold in the discharge of his duty? I rest my case.
NATION
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