Judges’ Trial Shifted As Aggrieved Litigants Flood DSS With Petitions

The trial of seven suspected corrupt judges earlier slated for today has been shifted till next week.
The shift, according to top security officials involved in the matter, is to attend to new information thrown up by aggrieved litigants, who claimed that they lost huge sums of money to the suspects.
The source disclosed that since the suspects were arrested and their names made public by the Department of State Service, DSS, aggrieved victims of the suspects’ financial misdeeds had been coming forward with stunning revelations against them.”
The agency said it could not overlook the new evidence being volunteered by Nigerians against the suspects and would only arraign them after going through the new petitions brought against the judges.
One of the top officials said: “We are almost through with the investigation of the judges. The ongoing investigation is not supposed to go beyond this week.
“We have written the National Judicial Council, NJC, about what has happened and we expect it to take some decisions on the affected judges this week.
“Once that is done, hopefully, by next week or thereabout, we should arraign them in court. For now, more facts in the form of petitions are trickling in about the judges. It’s like everyone who had cause to go to court for one reason or the other had been a victim.
“More facts are trickling in and we cannot ignore them. It is our statutory responsibility to investigate painstakingly, every complaint. Some victims have even indicated their readiness to testify in court.
“We assure the public that we will do a thorough job. We are investigating all the properties linked to them.
“The kind of things we observe as regards the forms they submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau is another kettle of fish.
NJC keeps mum
Meantime, NJC rounded-off the emergency meeting it convened over the arrest of the judges, last night.
Vanguard learned, last night, that though the Council has fully deliberated on the matter, it decided to keep mum until, today.
A source said: “There is rumour that they might be arraigned before the end of the week, possible tomorrow (today). I believe that is what has delayed release of NJC’s position on the issue.”

Vanguardngr