A new report issued by The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has revealed that an estimated N9.4 billion was exchanged in a bribe-for-judgement scheme in Nigeria’s judicial sector between 2018 and 2020.
The report dated Saturday, December 2 gathered that lawyers were mostly responsible for offering bribes for favourable judgements mostly in electoral and political matters.
Entitled, ‘Nigeria Corruption Index: Report of a pilot survey’, the report measured the activities of corruption in four sectors, including the executive, legislature, the judiciary, and the private business enterprise.
The ICPC reports reads, “The money involved in the high-level corruption in this sector was categorised into money demanded, offered, or paid. Demands are made by court officials including judges, while bribery offers and payment are made by lawyers and litigants.”
“The total amount of money reported by the Justice sector respondents as corruptly demanded, offered, and paid between 2018 and 2020 was N9.457 billion.”
The index also featured data collection on corrupt practices based on monetary and non-monetary offers from personnel of government Ministries, Department and Agencies MDA’s who took part in the survey.
It also said that of the 901 respondents in the justice sector, 638 making 70.81 per cent were Lawyers, 124 judges or 13.76 per cent, and 25 respondents at 2.77 per cent were court staffs (clerks and registers).
The ICPC said while the code of conduct for public officers prohibits requesting or accepting any property or any benefit on account of anything done by a public official, about 38 of the 399 MDA respondents at 9.5 per cent received a total of N3 million as a gift for contract-related work.
