President Goodluck Jonathan
brushed aside recommendations from the National Judicial Council and
the Chief Justice of Nigeria to sack former Appeal Court president, Ayo
Salami, ignoring firm arguments by the two authorities that Mr. Salami
was innocent of allegations against him.
The two authorities are mandated by law to advise the president on such judiciary matters.
The government accused Mr. Salami of
professional misconduct, but he is widely believed to have been punished
for political reasons.
A letter to the president by former Chief Justice of the Federation, CJN, Dahiru Musdapher, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES,
shows how the top echelon of the nation’s judiciary laboured to have
President Jonathan realize Mr. Salami’s innocence in his dispute with
Mr. Musdapher’s predecessor, Aloysius Katsina-Alu; and how they advised
that punishing Mr. Salami would terribly dent an already
integrity-deficient judiciary.
In the four-page letter, dated January
27, 2012, Mr. Musdapher informed the president how a committee he named
to review Mr. Salami’s suspension in 2011 absolved him, and made it
extensively clear why ensuring justice on the case- by reinstating Mr.
Salami- was crucial for a judiciary bereft of public confidence.
“Your Excellency, this report is not only before the National Judicial Council,
it is also at the court of public opinion,” Mr. Musdapher said of the
findings of the review committee. “And Mr. President will agree with me
that this recommendation no doubt should challenge our commitment to the
redemption of the image and credibility of the judiciary.”
Mr. Musdapher told the president that
the committee, led by another former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed
Uwais, found Mr. Salami not guilty of any of the misconducts he was
accused of, and recommended his immediate reinstatement.
“There was no evidence before any of the
National Judicial Council panels or in any of the petitions to justify
any findings that Salami PCA contravened the code of conduct for
judicial officers by talking to the mass media,” he said in his etter to
the president. “…On the whole, there was no evidence to show any form
of misconduct on the part of Salami PCA to justify any sanction or
punishment.”
The committee, Mr. Musdapher informed
Mr. Jonathan, also recommended that “…in order to maintain the integrity
of the judiciary and to assuage public feeling and restore confidence
in both the bar and bench, this committee strongly advises the Chief
Justice of Nigeria and National Judicial Council to reconsider its
earlier decision on the suspension of Justice Salami PCA and reinstate
him back to his position as soon as possible and in that way assure the
public that the suspension of Justice Salami as the President of the
Court of Appeal is not ill motivated.”
The former Chief Justice’s letter to the
president came ahead of an official recommendation by the National
Judicial Council, that Mr. Salami be recalled.
Both calls were rejected by the president.
Mr. Jonathan’s firm refusal to reinstate
the judge, who finally retired October 2013, spurred widespread
allegations that the president’s decision was politically-motivated
beyond the professional breach the government claimed as its reason for
suspending him. Mr. Musdapher’s letter appears to back that claim.
Justice Salami’s suspension in 2011 was
linked partially to his refusal to be elevated to the Supreme Court.
More specifically, he was punished for speaking to the media and
accusing Mr. Katsina-Alu, who was CJN at the time, of attempting to
interfere in the Sokoto state’s governorship election case that was
before the Appeal court.
He was suspended by the NJC for refusing to apologize to Mr. Katsina-Alu.
Mr. Salami’s case became a sore point
for political outfoxing between the governing Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, and the defunct opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN (now All
Peoples Congress, APC).
The PDP accused the former judge of
working for the ACN, hobnobbing with its leaders and dispensing
judgments deliberately skewed in favour of the party. Mr. Salami had
presided over the Court of Appeal’s upturning of governorship elections
in Osun, Ekiti and Edo States, decisions he based on evidences showing
that the sacked PDP governors in those states were beneficiaries of
rigged elections.
The PDP said there was evidence of telephone calls between leaders of the ACN, and the judge.
While the ACN, now APC, spoke in defence
of Mr. Salami, the ruling PDP, President Jonathan’s party, backed Mr.
Katsina-Alu with a spokesperson for the party, Olisa Metuh, recently
accusing Mr. Salami of lying against the former CJN.
Reflective of the political tinge of the
controversy, Mr. Salami was suspended August 18, 2011, just as the
Court of Appeal was hearing a suit brought by the presidential candidate
of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Muhammadu Buhari,
against President Jonathan’s election.
Mr. Salami’s suspension was approved by the president even while the matter had gone before a court.
After Mr. Katsina-Alu left office, his
successor, Mr. Musdapher ordered a review of the case. The Uwais panel
found Mr. Salami not guilty, and rather, it criticized Mr. Katsina-Alu
in his capacity as CJN then.
Mr. Musdapher’s letter provides an
insight into how President Jonathan turned down recommendations for Mr.
Salami’s recall, rebuffing detailed presentation from the Chief Justice,
and the NJC. The NJC is mandated by the constitution to advise the
president on such matters.
In his letter, Mr. Musdapher warned that
the judiciary was already suffering a damning public opinion deficit
nurtured by perceived impunity and corruption, and that the Salami case,
if not well addressed, could only exacerbate that perception.
“And Your Excellency would agree that it
is judicial schisms of this nature, and not necessarily the paucity of
administrative or judicial infrastructure, that overstretch the ethical
and moral fiber of our judiciary, robbing it inevitably of the
confidence of the public.”
On May 10, 2012, five months after the
letter was delivered to the president, the NJC officially voted 10 to 8,
in favour of recalling Mr. Salami eight months after he was suspended.
At the time, judiciary officials who
spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said the plan was for the former Appeal Court
president to be reinstated and made to serve three months before
retirement as his case had severely polarised the ranks of the
judiciary.
Weeks later, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke,
said Mr. Jonathan would not act since the matter was already in court,
again raising eyebrow since the same government approved Mr. Salami’s
suspension even while a court was considering the case. Mr. Musdapher
noted that point in his letter.
“Firstly, the National Judicial Council,
NJC, took action on the matter when it was subjudice,” he said.
“Normally we do not take decisions on matters before us which are
pending before the court.”
Throughout the episode, opposition
leaders accused the president of being pressured by PDP officials not to
heed the recommendation of the NJC.
That concern grew after an Abuja-based
lawyer, Amobi Nzelu representing one Wilfred Okoli, rushed to the
Federal High Court in Abuja, shortly after the NJC’s recommendation,
asking the court to restrain the president from accepting them, because
the “recommendations were not binding”.
Mr. Nzelu, who became known after
handling the infamous Apo six killings of 2006, said while the NJC had
powers to recommend the removal of the President of the Court of Appeal,
it lacked power to recommend his reinstatement.
Curiously, officials of the federal government circulated his court papers to the media.
Source: Premium Time
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