Human rights lawyer and legal commentator, Inibehe Effiong, has criticised Nigerian politicians for lacking principles and being inconsistent, calling on the Supreme Court to sanction fictitious legal cases that choke the country’s judicial system, news.ng reports.
Speaking on the leadership crisis in the African Democratic Congress during an interview on Channels Television on Friday, Effiong bemoaned the inconsistency of Nigerian politicians.
According to him, their actions weaken democratic institutions and waste judicial time on unnecessary political litigations.
He said, “Politicians will always be politicians, and that’s why I started on that note — that politicians in Nigeria seem destined to be mentally unstable. They are never stable, whether on principle. In the morning, they say one thing. In the afternoon, they say a different thing.”
The legal practitioner juxtaposed the actions of politicians with the judiciary, emphasizing that judges are compelled to abide by the law.
He stated, “That is not the destiny of a judex. That is not the training of a judex, of a judge. A judge follows the law. A judge follows judicial precedence.”
On the case involving Bala Gombe and the leadership of the ADC, Effiong frowned at the absence of sanctions on lawyers filing cases without merit.
“If at the end of the day, Bala Gombe’s suit, I said if, is found to be lacking in merit, what is going to be the punishment? He has wasted the time of everybody. He has wasted the time of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, time of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, time of the Supreme Court,” he argued.
“There has to be consequence. It is lack of consequence that has encouraged politicians to continue to bring these cases. But the Supreme Court must come out very hard. There has to be clear policy pronouncement, clear decision by the Supreme Court,” he declared.
Watch the clip
