‘Judicial rascality’: CSOs, lawyers weigh in, demand crackdown on erring judges

•Five controversial judgments By Henry Ojelu & Gabriel Ewepu Recent judgment of the Court of Appeal setting aside an earlier ruling by the Federal High Court ordering the deregistration of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and four other political parties has once again raised concerns over how court judgments are sometimes deployed in ways critics say frustrate the rule of law and undermine the democratic process.

The latest example came on Tuesday when the Court of Appeal delivered one of its strongest judicial rebukes in recent history, overturning the judgment of Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in the suit seeking the deregistration of ADC and four other political parties.“What should be done urgently is for the National Judicial Council (NJC) to investigate where a judge is publicly found by an appellate court to have defied a subsisting stay order, that is a disciplinary matter, not merely a legal one to be corrected on appeal.