Former President of Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, has accused judges in the country of aiding corruption, just as he lamented that corruption has eaten deep into the judiciary.

Speaking at the formal opening ceremony of the 2014 biennial law week of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ilorin branch, on Tuesday, Salami appealed to judges who indulged in the practice of fixing verdicts to desist.

"The problem of corruption in the judiciary is real and has eaten deep into the system. It must, however, be noted that it is not every judicial officer that is corrupt and dishonourable.

"There are some who are clearly identifiable as corrupt but they are protected by the system. There are those who lack courage and their timidity is exploited to pervert the course of justice.

"We hear constantly that the lack of courage of these ones are exploited by either their colleagues or retired senior judges who practice as consultants in fixing judgments.

"These consultants take money from litigants to give judges or intimidate judges to pervert justice.

"It is my respectful view that appeal should be made to these retired senior justices to leave the despicable role of bribing or intimidating judges.

They should engage themselves in other respectable vocations.

"The judges who lend themselves to this dishonourable practice of receiving money or lending themselves to perverting the course of justice under any guise of not receiving reward, monetary or otherwise, should note that there are other means of checking their excesses," he said.

Salami, who said that many judges live in opulence in Nigeria, owning as much as 16 vintage cars in addition to having "houses which are talk of the town in their community furnished with exotic furniture," added that the nobility of legal profession was fast waning.