President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Afam Osigwe, SAN, has lamented that judges and magistrates appear to be tools in the hands of politicians and ‘big men’.

Osigwe said this on Wednesday during an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’
He said that free speech is being concealed in Nigeria under the guise of cybercrime and defamation.

“Free speech is being muzzled in Nigeria under the guise of charging people to court and investigating them for cybercrime and criminal defamation.

“Even when the matters are ordinarily bailable, judges and magistrates appear to be tools in the hands of politicians and ‘big men’ and refuse bail even where there is no basis for not granting bail.

“This is a violation of the right to freedom of expression and an abuse of the democratic space.

“Because these public office holders should be held to a higher standard of accountability and if they deprive people of the ability to criticize and hold them to account, then democracy dies.

“If our judges become willing tools in giving them that which they desire, which is to put those people out of circulation, then there’s something wrong and the judiciary becomes a willing tool in the hands of the oppressors and thereby becomes an oppressor itself,” he said.