Justice Ebenezer Adebajo is a retired judge of the Lagos State High Court. He spent 10 years on the bench before he bowed last year following the statutory mandatory retirement age of 65. In this interview he spoke on his challenging period on the bench, death sentence, too many lawyers in the system and why influential people charged with criminal offences go almost scot-free. Excerpts:

What have you missed about being a judge since your retirement?

Before the date of my retirement, I had wound down mentally from the work. My frame of mind was that the work was coming to an end. But, as of today, I do miss the camaraderie with my colleagues. When I joined the bench, I think judges in Lagos State at that time were somewhat stiff to one another.  But along the line we started going on retreats. We were spending between a week to 10 days out of the country, in another location, going through some legal matters and also having a laugh with ourselves. It has engendered a comradeship within the Judiciary and I think it has been good for the Judiciary. So, on that note I have missed my colleagues.

What was your experience like on the bench?

I was appointed as a judge in January 2004, sworn in as judge of the High Court of Lagos State in May 2004. I had a period of 10 years on the bench because the law says I must retire at 65, but much of the period that I spent on the bench was at the Badagry High Court. On the formation of the Badagry Division of the Lagos High Court, I was the first judge to sit there and I was the only judge in that division for 6 years.

I was involved in general civil litigations, which means I handled cases ranging from divorce to land matters, to obaship (mornachy) disputes, to monetary indebtedness to fundamental human rights and what have you. It was such a cocktail of work and it brought out everything that I had learnt from the Bar.

But for the time that I was there, which was overlong, I think I appreciated being in Badagry. It was a most enjoyable experience.

Why do influential people charged with criminal offences go almost scot-free?  

In America, we all know what happened to a very well known sportsman, who was accused of having killed his wife, who had been unfaithful to him. He got some of the best defence lawyers around in America and he was able to go scot-free. So many people were dissatisfied that he got free but he got free because he got competent lawyers. Now, if you look at the Criminal Law practice, you will find that most of the top lawyers are not there.

In fact, no lawyer premises his practice on Criminal Law practice, otherwise, you are seen as a ‘charge and bail’ lawyer. So the Criminal Law practice is left for those who just want to make ends meet. And your big men are now able to pay the top lawyers top money for them to sit down and analyse their case and put it to the court and if they are able to put it to the court strongly enough and they are successful, you cannot begrudge them.

The Indonesian government recently executed eight drug convicts, including four Nigerians, what would you say about that?

I congratulate the Indonesia government, I congratulate the Indonesian judiciary for standing by the laws they have made. This law is made to protect that society and the people in Indonesia. They have a right to protect themselves in the manner that they deem fit. The Australia nationals are not obliged to go there; the ones that went there, by going, submitted themselves to the law of that land.

If any country should say that Nigeria should not do this or do that, it is a disregard for the sovereignty of the nation. I find it unfortunate that government, such as the Australian government, could not respect the laws and judicial system of a sovereign nation. If the position of a law in that country is that where there is criminal activity in the area of drugs, either by carrying drug or dealing in drugs, in whichever manner, and the law punishes it by conviction, by a death sentence, it is valid because it is their country and their right.

That is the paste at which its own custom and culture has moved, so it must be respected. Australia cannot act as a colonial power; stretch its hands in order to manipulate the judicial process in another country. The efforts of the western world, particularly America, to push Nigeria in accepting homosexuality as a way of life, was another attempt at impinging on our sovereignty. I thank God that both the people of Nigeria and arms of government in Nigeria rejected what they were doing. The judiciary has stood by its sovereignity.

Don’t you think that the Nigerian government owed those Nigerians executed in Indonesia an obligation of protection?

These individuals were free agents and yes they (federal government) might owe them an obligation of protection that is if they stay within the law. But these people stayed out of it voluntarily; they deliberately stayed outside the law. What obligation does government have to do? I feel that things have gone as it should be in Indonesia. However, did our government say anything? They have not said anything; and that is how it should be.

Do you support abolition of death sentence?

I do not agree with it. While our institutions are failing, the prison as an institution is half-failing. When people now believe that they can get away easily with anything wrong that they do, what would happen? When they now say even that law is nothing, I will kill you and I will just get in touch with my uncle and I will get away with it, what would happen?

There is a general failure of the institutions and the prison system is not a guarantee for anything. I do not believe that we are ripe to take the death penalty out of our laws. The corollary to that is that we have to remind the state governors that they voluntarily chose to take that position, and one of the duties of the governor of a state is to sign death warrants for people who have been convicted and sentenced to be hanged.

It is failure in their duty when they neglect to sign death warrants. It is part and parcel of the duties of a governor and it is a frustration of the order of the court when the governor does not sign death warrants. In Lagos State, for example, I don’t think any death warrant has been signed in the last 10 to 12 years. It is a failure, it is a neglect of the lawful and valid order of the court when the governor fails to sign the death warrant.

They should have asked what does it involve and if you know you are going to have nightmares about signing death warrants, then don’t go near that sit. I was a criminal court judge and I convicted somebody who had killed his wife and sentenced him to death, why couldn’t they do their duty too? We are not ripe for death sentence to be taken off our laws.

Delayed justice has continued to be an issue, in your experience as a judge, how best do you think this can be addressed?

It is not for the inability of judges; it is not for lack of attention to duty on the part of the judges. When I came into the Law profession at the beginning of the 80s, in the High Court of Lagos State, Igbosere, in January they would start numbering from LD/1/the number of that year and by the time you reach December, may be you are at LD/900+/the number of that year and that means that in that year, there were less than 1,000 cases filed.

But now, about 1,000 cases have been filed already. So, that is the differential that we are talking about. It takes one quarter of the time that it took before for people to file that number of cases. Litigation has grown in a monstrous way.

There is the belief that there is a decline in the quality of the Bar; having spent over 20 years in practice before going to the bench, what would be your take on this?

Yes, there is no doubt that the quality of legal practitioners in the country is on the decline. There is no doubt that the Body of Benchers, which is the body responsible for calling lawyers to the Bar, is not doing its job. If you look at the Accountancy profession, they have insisted on minimizing the number of people coming into that profession so that they could look after the standard. The standard has been eroded in the legal profession.

English is the tool of the lawyer. There are so many untutored chambers. I don’t know whether it is error or innovation, they present processes in court attempting to make innovations and Law is not a profession that gives room for innovations. It is a very staid profession and on the bench I have had to admit to lawyers that look, I am ‘old school’ and the legal profession is about being old school. It is a very conservative profession. But the Body of Benchers are the people who would see to the number of lawyers being admitted into the profession.

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