Nigerian judiciary should take a cue from the trial of ex-policeman Derek Chauvin that the rule of law must always prevail irrespective of who is involved in a trial, Chief Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has said.
Chauvin, a former Minneapolis policeman, was convicted on Tuesday of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the deadly arrest of George Floyd.
The 12-member jury found Chauvin, 45, criminally liable in Floyd’s death last year after considering three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses, including bystanders, police officials and medical experts.
During a confrontation in the video, Chauvin, a white man, pushed his knee into the neck of a 46-year-old black Freud in handcuffs for more than 9 minutes on May 25, 2020, when he and three colleagues arrested Freud. Floyd, Floyd is accused of buying cigarettes at a grocery store using counterfeit 20 dollars.
Speaking to our correspondent on the outcome of the judgment and the lessons learned from the Nigerian judiciary, Agbakoba said that the outcome of the trial also confirmed the old saying that the law does not respect people.
According to him; “The lesson is that it is a cardinal principle of democratic consolidation that the rule of law always prevails, in spite of all odds or who is affected”.
“The law is no respecter of persons. Amidst impunity and disrespect and chaos, the law comes down fully to deliver a just verdict and most importantly, without fanfare jurisdictional technicalities. This is what the George Floyd’s case has established”.
“Here in Nigeria, we grapple with the basic matter of whether the judiciary is free from executive control. I trust people in authority are listening” Agbakoba said .
