The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre), has lamented the high level of corruption in Nigeria’s judicial system.

HEDA, a non-governmental organisation, stated this as part of findings contained in the fifth edition of the Leadership Approval Rating (LAR).

The report titled, “Voices for Justice: A Civic Lens on Nigeria’s Judicial System – Documenting Public Experiences, Opinions & Reform Demands,” and unveiled by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre), on Tuesday in Lagos.

It said about 65.4 % of the public rate judicial corruption as high or extremely high.

It also said the report showed that only 42.3% believed that court decisions are based on merit while 64% believed that lawyers contribute to judicial corruption.

The Executive Secretary of HEDA, Arigbabu Sulaimon, told journalists present at the event that the report was a nationwide analysis of public perception regarding the Nigerian judiciary and built from the responses of 1,357 participants across all 36 states and the FCT.

“The demographic of those who took part in the survey for the report were fairly balanced with 53.9% male and 46.1% female; 57% of the respondents were aged 18-35, reflecting a strong youth engagement and every Nigerian state had over 30 responses with Yobe State having over 50 responses.

“The findings reveal widespread concerns on judicial accessibility, corruption, political interference and the erosion of human rights protections,” he said.

Sulaimon explained that 80% of participants to the report said they had never interacted with the courts, and only 12.6% rated the courts as highly accessible while 36.5% rated accessibility very low.

He said, “Legal visits to the courts were mostly for documents such as affidavits and agreements as well as for settlement of land and marital disputes and enforcement of rights.

“On the corruption perception index, 49% of court users surveyed admitted to “sorting” court officials while only 29% consider judges impartial.

“55% believe lawyers promote justice while 45% disagree. 62% also felt that judges were not upholding the principle of being “heard and not seen.

“On political influence, “63.4% say political/high profile cases expose judges to corruption while 48.9% said political cases get prioritised causing delay for other matters”.

The report also identified political, financial crimes, land and human rights cases as being most vulnerable to undue influence.

On judicial independence and oversight, HEDA said “only 17% of the participants trust the National Judicial Council (NJC) to discipline erring judges while 70% say they are unaware of the reporting channels for corruption or misconduct”.

It also said “59%, however, agreed that financial autonomy moderately boosts judicial independence”.

On human rights and law enforcement, it said, “60 % of the participants say courts enable police abuse and impose rights-violating bail conditions”.

“Major recommendations made include strict judicial oversight, enforcement of constitutional rights and prose of abusive officers.

“While courts and corruption cases are reported regularly, only about half of the respondents say these stories reach the general public consistently while only 9% of Nigerians say that they actively follow NJC related news.”

Key reform suggested include full judicial autonomy and transparent appointments, better salaries and security for judges, strong anti corruption mechanisms, use of technology for transparency (e.g. live -streams, body cams, et cetera, during court sessions), public awareness and legal education as well as creation of special human rights courts.

The Zamfara State House of Assembly has been factionalised with the emergence of two parallel Assembly sittings being conducted by its members, all urging Governor Dauda Lawal to represent the 2025 appropriation bill and address insecurity in one month.

Two separate assembly sittings were held on Wednesday. Ten out of 24 members of the state assembly whom the State Speaker purportedly suspended, Hon Bilyaminu Ismail Moriki, were conducted under Hon Bashar Aliyu Gummi as factional speaker. At the same time, the other side was also held under the state speaker, Hon. Bilyaminu Ismail Moriki.

During the sitting, all the members contributed to the issue of insecurity, Governor Dauda Lawal’s breach of the nation’s constitution, and the indiscriminate dismissal of state civil servants without actual reason.

The lawmakers who reinforced the selection of Hon Bashar Aliyu Gummi as Speaker when the whole house impeached Speaker Moriki early last year for alleged highhandedness and misconduct, among other things, sat in Gusau today, Wednesday, to make far-reaching decisions of public interest.

After deliberations that lasted about two hours, the factional Speaker, Hon. Bashar Aliyu Gummi, representing Gummi 1 State constituency, announced that the members have issued a one-month ultimatum to Governor Dauda Lawal, within which all issues surrounding armed banditry, kidnapping, and other heinous crimes must be resolved.

The factional members, who cut across the political parties of the APC and the PDP, lamented how the state government seemed to be comfortable with the unfortunate security situation in the state.

They accused Governor Dauda of spending vast sums of money on trivial matters. At the same time, poverty and insecurity have taken over the whole 14 local government areas of the state, at a time the state government refused to show sympathy to victims of either bandits’ attack or those who lost their loved ones to the bandits.

They recalled that their purported suspension followed their refusal to remain silent while the carnage by bandits continued unabated in the state.

The lawmakers urged the state government to change its attitude of not supporting security agents who sacrifice their lives to defend citizens by ensuring that it gives them all the necessary support.

Similarly, the lawmakers who expressed sadness at the poor support of the Dauda Lawal-led administration to the security, blamed the government for not adequately equipping its own Security Protection Guards (Askarawa), which they also said led to the killing of over half of the squad in their numerous confrontations with criminals.

They noted that the governor could comfortably assist families of slain members of the Security Protection Guards who lost their lives in the line of duty, “even from his N2 billion monthly Security vote.” They urged him to immediately address that, even with N10 million for each affected family.

They implored the state government to immediately rescind its decision, which saw the sacking of over 4,000 civil servants without due process, noting that this was detrimental to the state, particularly owing to Zamfara’s insecure posture.

The factional law makers argued that if so-called friends of the governor, particularly those coming from Niger, Kaduna and Adamawa states could be building multi billion naira mansions and buying properties in their respective states shortly after visiting their Zamfara governor friend, the governor would not have any moral right nor justification to downsize the state workforce with the flimsy excuse of inadequate resources.

Accordingly, they maintained that all those sacked should be returned to their duty posts and their denied salaries and other entitlements should be paid in arrears. They also described their suspension as “illegal, misleading and unfounded. Saying how can an impeached speaker, by 18 out of 24 members, suspend other members

With this development, a new political development emerged with two parallel House of Assembly sittings.

Members who attended the parallel sittings include: Hon. Aliyu Ango Kagara, Member Representing Talata Mafara South, Hon. Ibrahim Tudu Tukur Bakura, Member Representing Bakura, Hon. Nasiru Abdullahi Maru, Member, Representing Maru North. Hon. Faruk Musa Dosara, Member representing Maradun 1, Hon Bashar Aliyu, Member representing Gummi 1, Hon Barrister Bashir Abubakar Masama, Member representing Bukkuyum North, Hon Amiru Ahmed, Member representing Tsafe West, Hon Basiru Bello, Member representing Bungudu West and Hon Mukhtaru Nasiru, Member representing Kaura Namoda North.