The Nigerian Bar Association on Tuesday named a 13-member panel of senior lawyers to investigate the corruption charges against the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysious Katsina-Alu and the President, Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Salami.The NBA probe panel, chaired by a former President of the lawyers’ body, Chief Thompson Okpoko (SAN), is also mandated to look into the corruption that have allegedly pervaded the entire judicial system. It will equally consider the matter of legal practitioners who allegedly promote corruption in the system.
The NBA panel represents a major step in unraveling the crisis of confidence in the Nigerian judicial system, especially since Salami accused Katsina-Alu of attempting to corruptly influence him to pervert justice in the Sokoto State governorship petition trial. The House of Representatives’ Committee on Justice mandated by the federal lower legislative chamber to investigate the Salami allegation also met in Abuja on Tuesday. Our correspondent reports that members of the Committee who met in private refused to let journalists into their deliberation at the meeting.
Chairman of the committee, Mr. Henry Dickson, had said in Abuja on Sunday that the CJN might be invited by the committee to respond to the allegation by the PCA.
The National President of the NBA, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), who announced the constitution of the panel in a statement, listed the members to include Chief Bamidele Aiku (SAN), Mr. Idowu Sofola (SAN), Dr. Sunday Ameh (SAN), Mr. Onueze Okocha (SAN), Mr. Emmanuel Toro (SAN) and Chief Assam Assam (SAN).
Other members are Prof. Gabriel Olawoyin (SAN), Mr. Marcus Yarkasuwa Saleh (SAN), Mr. Obi Ulasi (SAN), Alhaji M.U. Ibrahim and Mrs. Stella Ugboma.
Dauda said Mr. Ebenezer Obeya would serve as the secretary of the committee.
The NBA boss said he decided to name the panel in pursuant to the resolution of the National Executive Committee of the NBA in Awka, Anambra State on February 17, 2011.
Daudu said, “I have been, in my capacity as the President of the NBA, directed to set up a high-powered committee to investigate and report back to NBA-NEC the following: CJN/PCA face-off; debilitating corruption eating into and corroding the entire judicial system; and legal practitioners who promote corruption in a variety of ways in the system.
“The Chairman of the committee will as expeditiously as possible fix a date (preferably within this week) for a commencement of the committee’s activities. The committee will regulate its activities and within the shortest possible time, submit its report to the President of the NBA, who will in turn forward it to NEC/NBA for it to deal with as it pleases.”
He further said that the National Secretariat of the NBA had been put on alert to ensure that the activities of the committee proceeded smoothly.
The face-off between the CJN and the PCA blew into the open when the CJN nominated the PCA for elevation to the Supreme Court. But the PCA had in an open letter rejected the ‘elevation’ on the grounds that it was a ‘Greek gift’ meant to remove him from the Court of Appeal .
Salami had also claimed that the game plan of the CJN was to replace him with his “stooge” at the Court of Appeal. Salami further filed an action before a Federal High Court in Abuja, challenging the ‘elevation’ and named the National Judicial Council, the Federal Judicial Service Commission and the Attorney-General of the Federation as co-defendants to the suit.
The PCA also made weighty allegations against the CJN in an affidavit he personally deposed to, saying that the CJN asked him to compromise on the Sokoto governorship tussle.
But the PCA later withdrew the matter against the CJN, following the intervention of well meaning Nigerians just as the proposed elevation was shelved by the NJC and the matter was struck out by Justice Adamu Bello.
As a fall-out of the crisis at the top echelon of the judiciary, the Ekiti and Osun states’ chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party also submitted petitions to the NJC and the Presidency, alleging underhand dealings in the handling of the election petitions that led to the sacking of the former governors of the state.
The former governors, Mr. Segun Oni (Ekiti) and Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun), both members of the PDP were replaced respectively by Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Rauf Aregbesola of the Action Congress of Nigeria.
Reacting to the petitions of the PDP, the Presidency on Tuesday said it was not a party to the suits in which the petitioners were alleging foul play; hence it should not be involved.
“Is the Presidency the law court? Was it a party to the suits? Is it the Presidency that ‘overturns’ judgments,” presidential spokesman, Mr. Ima Niboro said.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Union of Journalists and the Coalition for Democracy and Credible Election, a coalition of 250 civil society organisations, have called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately convene a meeting of all former heads of state to intervene in the lingering crisis between the CJN and Salami.
In a joint statement issued by the two bodies, they cautioned against any attempt to politicise the feud. They warned that doing so would not only undermine the integrity of the judiciary but threaten the current democratic dispensation.
They observed that the judiciary was critical to the survival of the country, adding that the current problem should be carefully tackled by the “nation’s elders” in such a way that the integrity of the judiciary would be strengthened.
In the statement which was jointly signed by the National Secretary of the NUJ, Shuaibu Leman, and the National Coordinator of CODECE, Dr. Lanre Adebayo, the two bodies further advised that the National Assembly should desist from embarking on a probe of the crisis because doing so would further politicise the matter.
They also advised the NBA and other Civil Society Organisations to exercise caution in their comments on the issue.
The two bodies further called on journalists and other unions to also exercise restraint in their analysis of the crisis.
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