A legal expert, Barrister Vincent Wasini, has said that there will be lawlessness in society if there is no judiciary saying that there will be anarchy as people do what they think best.
Speaking in an interview he said that if people would not go to court for settlement of dispute there would be jungle justice.
The legal practitioner said: “You will see that if people no longer have confidence in the judiciary, people will begin to settle disputes on their own. There will be jungle justice. For instance an alleged criminal is apprehended and instead of them to take the person to the police and be charged to court they will want to lynch him because they do not have confidence in the police and especially the judiciary”.
He said that the judiciary should dispense justice dispassionately because people needed to have confidence in the judiciary.
He said there would be chaos if people lose confidence in the judiciary.
The legal practitioner said the role of the judiciary in the country’s democracy was to promote the rule of law saying the judiciary was like an equalizer ensuring that nobody would be above the law.
He said: “The judiciary helps to equal the playing field for all and sundry. If the judiciary sits up to its mandate we will see that issues of electoral rigging will be minimized”.
He said if the judiciary could punish adequately those who engage in electoral malpractice and defend the mandate of the electorate there would be so much public confidence in the country’s electoral system.
He also said it was the role of the judiciary to act as a watchdog in society.
He said if people lose confidence in the courts they would no longer approach the courts for resolution of matters.
On alleged corruption by judicial officers, Masini said that there was no perfect system saying that judicial officers were also human and problems existing in wider society could also be seen in judicial arm.
He however said people should not lose faith in judiciary but said Nigerians could demand fairness and transparency in judicial process.
He also said the people could demand that votes should count in the country’s elections and demand that politicians would not use youths as agents of restiveness.
He said Nigerians could hold political office holders accountable and say that right thing be done to promote well-being of Nigerians.
He said the people should demand fairness and accountability saying the result would trickle down to every part of society.
