The Nigerian bar and bench reached a truce yesterday. And the agreement was the recuse the judges recently arrested by DSS and accused of corruption will be recused from cases, pending the outcome of the ongoing probe and planned prosecution by the presidency. Before their new positions, the Nigerian Bar Association had insisted on the suspension of the arrested judges while the NJC had refused to heed the call.

In a closed-door meeting, yesterday, initiated by the body of Senior Advocates – a group of elite lawyers – the two lead practitioners in the legal industry sorted out their differences which had boiled over in recent weeks after the Nigerian Bar Association President Abubakar Mahmoud publicly called on the National Judicial Council to suspend the accused judges. The Chief Justice of Nigeria Mahmud Mohammed – who also doubles as the chairman of NJC – rebuffed the call and insisted the body that regulates conduct of judicial officers would not suspend the judges over allegations that were not formally reported to the NJC. The CJN insisted on following the letters of the dictates of the constitution in the matter.

The Nigerian Tribune says a senior source present at the meeting insisted that though the two parties did not agree on specific decisions, the NBA team, led by its president, A.B Mahmood, was satisfied with the announcement by the CJN that the affected apex court justices had neither sat nor put on any panel since their arrest and release on bail.

The Tribune further reports:

“The CJN pointed out that his leadership needed no advice from anywhere to recuse them from cases, including the ones they were participating in before the incident,” the source noted.

Mahmood and his team were said to have expressed their satisfaction with the development at the apex court, noting that the rescuing was in tandem with their call that the judges had to stop sitting on cases, because of the way the public would perceive it.

Nigerian Tribune was told that the meeting opened with Mahmood explaining his new position on the matter, after initially joining other NJC members to condemn the invasion of the judges’ residence.

The attendee source stated that Mahmood further told the other party that the Bar did not do a volte-face as being suggested, but simply trying to ensure that the confidence of the citizenry in the judiciary did not erode completely.

The CJN reportedly took his turn after Mahmood to explain his disavowal with the initial suspension call by the NBA.

A source on NBA side told the Nigerian Tribune last night that the call for suspension was no longer on the card, since the judges had been recused from cases.

“Both parties softened on the initial hardline positions and tried to get each other to understand their positions,” the source said.

It was also learnt that NJC is now shifting ground to accommodate lawyer-members to participate in consideration for the sanction of judges.

NBA five-man members of the council are usually excused from the second day of the council meetings when sanction of judges is usually considered.

They were, however, allowed at the emergency meeting, following the arrest of the affected judges.

The next meeting of the council has been fixed for November 2 and 3.