Senate orders c’ttee to probe judges’ arrest by DSS

Dissatisfied with the corrupt allegations advanced by the Directorate of State Ser­vices (DSS) for the arrest of the six justices, the Senate yesterday concluded plans to invite the judges for fur­ther investigation into the matter.
The justices are to ap­pear before the Commit­tee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal matter to provide answers to certain questions from the Senate.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Da­vid Umaru, disclosed the plans to invite the judges on Wednesday while rely­ing on a point of order to make a personal explana­tion.
“Mr President, by virtue of the 1999 Constitution as amended and order 96, Rule 37 of our rules, the powers of this committee to oversight the judiciary and particularly its pow­ers include judicial matters and judges and justices of the court.
“I am bringing this to the attention of the Sen­ate so that we can take the permission of this Senate to enable us conduct prop­er oversight on this mat­ter and invite the justices to enable us interact with them in order to conduct proper oversight as we are enjoined by the provision of our rules and the 1999 Constitution”, he said.
In his response, Sen­ate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, mandated the com­mittee to go ahead with the planned probe into the matter as part of their oversight function as they had already been empow­ered.
“You do not need to come to us; you have your powers under the oversight and you should be able use the powers and do whatev­er you deem necessary.
“So do your job in line with your powers,” Saraki said.
The justices arrested include John Okoro and Sylvester Nguta of the Su­preme Court and a former Chief Judge of Enugu State, Innocent Umezulike.
Others are Namdi Dimg­ba and Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja; Kabiru Auta, from Kano; Muazu Pindiga of Federal High Court in Gombe.