Why judicial nominees failed integrity test – Opara reveals

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An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Maxwell Opara, has expressed the view that the judicial nominees who did not pass the integrity screening lacked adequate representation before the panel to safeguard their interests.

Opara made the remark on Tuesday while speaking in an interview on Arise Television.

He was responding to the outcome of the screening exercise in which 34 judicial nominees reportedly failed the integrity assessment.

According to him, the panel should make public the names of all applicants and openly explain the standards used in drawing up the integrity list, noting that this is the only way to assure Nigerians that the process was conducted thoroughly and impartially.

“Well, this has been our position. That has been what we have been calling for, because we believe that when we get it right in the judiciary, we are there. Because when you see a politician or any Nigerian misbehaving, they have watched the position of the judiciary.

“A couple of days ago, we got information that some persons failed integrity test. Who are those persons that failed this test? Who wrote those petitions against them?

“What were the petitions all about? Who are those that interviewed them? You should make it open. There is nothing secret about it.
“On my own, I may be wrong. I believe that those that purportedly failed the integrity test are those who have nobody to protect their interest in the panel.

“I may be wrong, but for you people to prove me wrong, you need to come up and tell us who applied and who wrote petitions against who.

“If you don’t want to disclose the persons that wrote the petitions, no problem, but let us know the facts and how you arrived that these are the integrity threshold. These are the criteria and he or she failed to meet up with the criteria.
“Of course, personally and some other persons are also feeling the same that the people that were disqualified are those who have no connection with the members of the panel.

“So for the panel to prove to Nigerians that it did a good job, it needs to make everything open for Nigerians, because from the information I have, I think it’s only one or two persons that people wrote petitions against,” he said.

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