The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) have demanded the immediate release of the judges arrested by the operatives of the Department of State Services.

The group in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari threaten to take legal action if the judges are not immediately freed.

In a statement by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni on Sunday, the group said the arrest of the judges was a “blow on the independence of the judiciary and a dangerous precedent that should not be allowed to stand.”

SERAP also demanded a probe and punishment of everyone involved in the arrest.

SERAP said, “We are seriously concerned about the wave of arrests, intimidation and harassment of judges across the country by the DSS. While we fully support the government’s efforts to eradicate judicial corruption, we cannot accept anti-corruption strategies and methods which patently offend the rule of law and undermine the authority, integrity, sanctity and independence of the judiciary.

“SERAP believes that strategies and methods to sanction suspected corrupt judges must never have an inhibiting or chilling effect on the authority, sanctity, integrity and independence of the judiciary.

“The uncertainty of the processes and grounds on which suspected corrupt judges can be sanctioned would affect the capacity of all judges to act independently, and the public confidence in the judiciary.

“Judges, like other constitutional functionaries, must face the law if they depart from or deceive the law, such as when they are suspected of engaging in corruption. But what the DSS has done is a blow to the independence of judiciary, and a dangerous precedent that should not be allowed to stand.

“The value of the principle of judicial independence is that it protects judges from arbitrary sanctions by the government. The way this country dispenses justice and treats its judges will show the moral and legal character to which it can pretend.”