I Sacked 22 Magistrates and 3 judges as Lagos State Attorney General - Prof Osinbajo

The All Progressive Congress APC Vice Presidential candidate Prof Yemi Osinbajo said during an interactive section with Media executives that in a bid to rid Lagos state  Judiciary of corruption, he sacked 22 magistrates and 3 judges after requisite investigation has been carried out despite mounting pressure from prominent persons in the society ranging from Tradition ruler to those vocal against corruption issues.he said he was prepared to resign if his decision was rescinded.

“This was the situation we found ourselves in 1999 and we decided to reform the judiciary and cleanse it. To cut a long story short, we decided among other things to rid the system of corruption and sanction affected judges. By 2001, 22 magistrates had lost their jobs.

“By 2002, three judges of the high court had lost their jobs. Anytime these things happened, the first people that would call me were those who had made eloquent statements about corruption in the judiciary. Were they calling me to say congratulations on job well done? No.

“They were calling me to say why did you do that? How can you sack those people? The reason why you are sacking these people is because they are not from your state. People just calling, traditional rulers, influential people, saying ‘no, no, we are not going to allow that.’ That is not acceptable. You should have consulted with us and other stuff like that, even from senior members of the Bar.

“We were under serious pressure, the governor and I, but at the end of the day, it stayed, because I made it very clear to the governor that if the decision was reversed, I would be on my way out of his government. The governor supported everything and refused to reverse anyone of those decisions, despite the pressure.

“As a new government in the centre, there would be a fight, a really big fight, but we would not shy away from confronting such fight and I am sure you know that one thing about Major-General Buhari, which everybody is saying about him, is that how do you go to him with something that is not right. At least, for once, the president would be taken seriously and people would take their cue from that.” He said