By Matthew Tabe
Retired Justice Serifat Solebo said that judges are still working online with past laws that have been overtaken by new ones in the country.
Justice Solebo had served the Lagos State judiciary Sector between 1999 and 2022, both as a Magistrate and High Court Judge who graciously retired last week.
ALSO READ: G5 Comment: Nigeria’s Chief Justice is not partisan, says SAN
She argued “A lot of lawyers are ignorant of current laws and where we are aware of the current laws, the cankerworm called corruption has eaten deep into our system, such that it inhibits compliance. It is systemic and endemic.
“My opinion is that we have too many laws that address too many things. Sometimes as practitioners we even forget that we have some laws. There are so many, I’m not saying they’re irrelevant, but what I’m saying is that we are studying those old laws? We don’t know what is in the new laws. So, we are still working with the past laws, that had been overtaken.
“That’s one. Even where we know, are we working in accordance with the laws of the land? Most times, we are not. Ignorance cannot be an excuse in law.
“There’s no law they have abroad, we don’t have it in Nigeria, but the issue is the difference in the enforcement of the laws. Those who are supposed to enforce the laws are the ones circumventing the laws and that’s why in my opinion, things are not working”.
On funding of the judiciary sector she stressed that the Lagos State judiciary is the pacesetter throughout the federation as lead while other judiciaries. Good things are initiated in Lagos first and of course, implemented, and others would adopt and improve on it.
Justice Solebo noted that she had Challenges in clashing of interest especially while rendering with humanity Service and the provisions of the law.
She said “I don’t quite have challenges in most cases, except when I have the course to pronounce death by hanging sentence in a murder case. And also, in sexual offences, which is also life imprisonment. The challenges, most times, arose from where the investigation was shoddy. Sometimes, my inner self knew that the accused person likely committed the offence, but the law is that justice must be seen to be done.
“Your evidence must be such that any lay person who picks the file can say, oh, this person committed the offence. But most times, the defendant will say, I didn’t do it. The lawyer, in his written address, will sometimes even write something different from the evidence led just to see that his client goes off the hook.
“And then you wonder, should I let this person go, having taken somebody’s life or engaged in a sexual offence? The law says to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. So despite the feelings, I would have to let go when doubts are created.
ALSO READ: 4 months after Tanko Muhammad resigned, Buhari swears in new Chief Justice
“But in civil matters, I rarely have any challenges. The challenge comes when you are to take a decision on children or family matters that have to do with children. For example, in cases of incest, where a father who ordinarily should be a good husband to the wife and the children, sleeps with his daughter, the law is that I should give life imprisonment. What should I do? This is a breadwinner, whose wife is a petty trader. They are living in a rented apartment.
“So, if I sentence him to life imprisonment, who pays the rent? Where do they go? So at the end of the day, there’s no way the issue of courtroom bias will not come in because even though the law does not say so, I must consider the interests of the other children, their education, and their welfare. So those are the kind of challenges I faced.
“I also had one where a boy of 17 raped and impregnated a girl who was 15; where do I send the boy, where can I keep the boy? And even the principal in the school came to court to let me know that he’s a brilliant student. The same thing also happened in a matter where a very brilliant boy beat a girl and the girl fell down and died. And that happened just two months to the student sitting for his WASSCE. Do I truncate his education? So, those are the challenges within the criminal justice system that I had during my time and short period.”
“The boy whom the principal and teachers came to lead evidence and the social inquiry reports attested to his brilliance, bringing his reports; though at that time it was not part of our law that we could suspend a sentence, I suspended the sentence so that the boy could sit for his WASSCE. It was at that point I became a judge. So what happened (to the case)? I don’t know.
“In the case of the father who impregnated the daughter, I also was a magistrate at the time. I locked him up and while I was thinking of what to do, elevation came and that ended my interest. What happened to him thereafter I don’t know.
“In the case of the one who pushed a girl that died and was a brilliant boy and the other one who raped a 15-year-old, I just put all of them under supervision. Under the law, the last resort of punishment for children under 18 should be incarceration, so I directed them to counsel and I also ordered that during their holiday they should come and cut grass within the court environment. And they did it conscientiously, but I also placed them on supervision, till the two of them were 18, because there was no point in sending them to jail.
“Moreover, the boy at that time said it was even the girl who invited him and he slept with her. So, should I change the charge to make it look like it was the girl who raped the boy? So I punished the two of them.”