10th December, 2020
A report by the Anti-corruption Academy, has revealed how Nigerian lawyers offered bribes estimated at N5.7billion to judges to earn favourable judgment on election cases.
The Anti-Corruption Academy is an intellectual arm of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The report, published by PR Nigeria disclosed that 9.9% of lawyers reported the experiences of paying a bribe in connection to cases, mostly electoral matters they were handling.
“However, the total amount reported by this relatively small group of lawyers amounted to N5,733,980.000.00,” it reported.
Similarly, out of 124 judges interviewed for the survey, 11 responded that they had been offered bribes to influence their handling of a case.
The report stated that bribery offered to judges are sometimes done through spouses, parents, religious or traditional leaders, former of serving colleagues.
The people offering the bribes use the intermediary to insulate themselves from the backlash of their corrupt practice.
“While the judge may refuse the bribe without hesitation, there may be more than a little reluctance to report the incident because of the role played by the intermediary.”
The magnitude of assets and volume of money involved in grand corruption are such that just a few incidents can have disastrous consequences for the whole sector, the report noted.