A Human right activist and a senior lawyer Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa,
SAN, has said it is very irresponsible for a serving
minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to call a
Judge a Harlot.
The learned Silk registering his displeasure on Thursday over
the negative energies exhibited by the minister of State for
Petroleum, Mr Timipriye Silva during his interview on a television
channel said such a despicable utterances amount to contempt
against the authority of the Judiciary and that NBA, the Chief
Justice Of Nigeria should not treat this matter with levity.
He said: “Just tonight, on prime time television (Channels)
programme monitored by me in Lagos, the Hon Minister of State for
Petroleum, Mr. Timipriye Silva, described a sitting judge of the
Federal High Court, Yenagoa Division, Hon Justice Ekwo as a “bad
egg that deserves to be flushed out of the judiciary”.
“I have read earlier in the day that on another radio programme,
he variously described her as a “harlot”.
“Mr. Timipriye Silva is not a party to the case pending before
the court and he is not a lawyer to any of the parties.
“Even at that, it is uncouth and undignified for a serving
Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to descend so low in
employing gutter language against a sitting judge.
“It is the greatest act of contempt against the authority and
integrity of the judiciary for a citizen to describe a judicial
officer as a bad egg or a harlot, all because a judgment was
delivered by the said judge which is considered unfavorable and for
which an appeal has already been filed.
We cannot sit by and watch this flagrant desecration of the
temple of justice by people who should serve as role models for
others,” he said.
The human rights activist, therefore, urge the Nigerian Bar
Association, the National Judicial Council and the Hon Chief
Justice of Nigeria, to proceed against Mr Timipriye Silva urgently,
until such a time that he is able to purge himself of the contempt
brazenly committed against His Lordship, in the due exercise of a
judicial function.