Corruption Has Killed Nigeria’s Legal Institution – – Like the police, Nigeria’s legal institutions are weak and easily compromised. The destructive effects of corruption extend well beyond the country’s top judges: corruption also affects magistrates, lawyers, and administrative staff many of whom are overworked, poorly trained, and underpaid.

Judicial corruption is often not overt but rather involves judges accepting bribes in exchange for using obscure technicalities to dismiss cases, for excluding critical evidence, or for allowing defense lawyers to use spurious tactics to delay cases for years on end.

This has hindered the work of the EFCC and other anticorruption agencies. Wealthy defendants in anticorruption cases routinely use bribes to tamper with evidence and silence potential witnesses, or clandestinely convey cash gifts to judges hearing their case.

In 2016, security operatives seized a total of $800,000 in a rare crackdown on eight judges including a Supreme Court justice implicated in fraud and money laundering.

The fight against corruption is a collective fight that must not be left for anti graft agencies. Blow the whistle, take the action and expose corrupt practices in public and private firm.

We must rise collectively to uproot corruption in every part of our society.

#SayNoToCorruption #JoinTheFightAgainstCorruption

Obidike Chukwuebuka
EFCC Ambassador.