Salami: An upright judge’s fate

 

 • Justice Musdapher

 

Never in the country’s judicial history has so many committees been set up over one man. There were five – as of the last count, last week. Last year, President Goodluck Jonathan acted swiftly in suspending the Court of Appeal President, based on a National Judicial Council (NJC) recommendation. Now, why is the President not willing to act fast in recalling him, following a reported recommendation to that effect? JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU, ERIC IKHILAE, ADEBISI ONANUGA and JOSEPH JIBUEZE examine the issues and the fate of a judge many have described as “incorruptible” and “courageous”.

Like a rudderless ship, the leadership of the Judiciary has effectively taken the crisis that almost annihilated the third arm of government on a full circle. Yet, it seems bent on evading the truth.
The disagreement between the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu and the suspended President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Isa Ayo Salami, no doubt, hit hard at the foundation of judicial integrity.
About seven months after the Judiciary chose to wash its "judicial linen" in public, the National Judicial Council (NJC) seems unwilling to confront the rot in the system that culminated in what has now become the Katsina-Alu/Salami saga.
Rather than toe the path of honour by admitting error of judgment and recalling the suspended PCA, the leadership, after the last meeting of the National Judicial Council (NJC), chose to constitute a reconciliatory committee on the issue, thereby replicating a similar action under its predecessor.
The NJC, critics argued, has by this action chosen to engage in rigmarole. This is because rather than accepting the recommendation of the Justice Muhammadu Uwais Committee that Justice Salami be recalled, the Justice Dahiru Musdapher-led NJC has constituted another committee.
Under Justice Katsina-Alu’s leadership, and at the initial stage of the crisis, the NJC set up a similar committee, headed by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Bolarinwa Babalakin, but its recommendations were not accepted by the constituting authorities.
This antecedent, observers argue, buttresses the skepticism as to whether the current leadership of the Judiciary is willing to confront the truth by recalling Justice Salami as recommended by the Justice Uwais Committee.

How it all began

Indications that all was not well between the then two senior judicial officers became public February last year when the media reported a purported move to "elevate" Justice Salami to the Supreme Court.
The report was confirmed by a February 4, 2011 letter by Justice Salami to Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, rejecting the "unholy" promotion.
Justice Salami said:"I regret to say that I am not taken in. I am contented with being the President of the Court of Appeal. Indeed, it is common knowledge that I had even, on a more auspicious moment, declined for good reasons to be appointed to the Supreme Court."
To stave off further moves by the CJN in that regard, Justice Salami headed for the court. In a suit he filed before the Federal High Court, Abuja, he prayed the court to, among others, stop his planned elevation, naming the CJN, FJSC, NJC and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) as respondents.
Justice Salami was to later disclose the root of what, according to him, informed the CJN’s decision to influence his unprecedented and unsolicited elevation. Justice Salami, in his deposition in an affidavit supporting the suit, stated that he fell out of favour with the CJN following his refusal to do his (CJN’s) bidding on the Sokoto State gubernatorial election petition tussle.
He accused the CJN of, among other weighty and damaging allegations, asking him to pervert the cause of justice in respect of the Sokoto governorship case involving Governor Magatakarda Wamakko of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP).
Justice Salami averred that the CJN’s bid to promote him to the apex court was to "facilitate him (CJN) to plant his own stooge as the President of the Court of Appeal to do his biddings as and when needed."
Bothered by the turn of events and its negative implication on the image of the Judiciary, other members of the NJC urged Justice Salami to withdraw the suit he filed against his promotion. The NJC also set up a five-man Reconciliation Committee which had Bolarinwa Babalakin, A.B. Wali, Anthony Iguh and Emmanuel Ayoola, all retired Justices of the Supreme Court, and Justice Akanbi, as members to reconcile the two top judges.
On February 15, Justice Salami served notice of discontinuance of the suit. He said: "Following the intervention of well-meaning Nigerians and stakeholders in the justice sector, I hereby apply to discontinue this suit."
In its March 8, 2011 report, the Justice Babalakin panel gave Justice Salami a clean bill of health, but found that Justice Katsina-Alu acted beyond his powers in interfering in the Sokoto case that was then before the Court of Appeal.
It indicted the CJN over his interference in the work of the Sokoto Election Panel and declared that there is no case of misconduct against the President of the Court of Appeal in the petitions purportedly written against him by two lawyers.
On the CJN’s role, the committee held that "the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria as the Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) has no power to interfere with any proceedings in any court as was done in this case."
Curiously, the NJC refused to act on this report, rather it constituted another committee headed by Justice Umaru Abdullahi, the immediate past president of the Court of Appeal, to re-examine the issue.
In the outcome, the committee indicted Justice Salami for perjury over his claim that the CJN tried to compel him to tinker with the course of justice in the Sokoto Appeal panel.
The panel also stated that the CJN acted outside his powers in arresting a judgment that was not before his court. In what appeared a decision aimed at not rocking the boat, the Abdullahi committee refrained from making recommendations.
The NJC later constituted another three-man panel, headed by Justice Ibrahim Auta, to review the Abdullahi committee’s report and come up with recommendations. The panel cleared the CJN of any wrong doing.
It upheld Justice Salami’s indictment and recommended, with a seven-day ultimatum, that Justice Salami should tender an apology to the CJN and NJC, a directive he ignored, but chose to challenge the decision in court.
On August 15, last year, Justice Salami sued. He challenged the report of the Justice Ibrahim Auta panel at a Federal High Court, Abuja.
He prayed for 15 reliefs, including a perpetual injunction restraining the NJC from acting on the reports of the Umaru Abdullahi Fact-Finding Committee and the Auta Review Panel.
He argued that both panels lacked the powers to determine whether or not he was guilty of perjury as they had imputed in their reports, noting that they are administrative panels that could not assume the status of a court.
Besides, he claimed that the Auta Panel never gave him a right to fair hearing before making a pronouncement of guilt on him. He insisted that a panel of the NJC, headed by Justice Bolarinwa Babalakin, had cleared him of any misconduct on the same matter investigated by Abdullahi and Auta committees.
Named as respondents in the suit are Katsina-Alu, then the Deputy Chairman of NJC now CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher; members of the NJC’s Fact-Finding Committee- Hon. Justice Umaru Abdullahi; Hon. Justice Emmanuel Ayoola; Hon. Justice Dominic Edozie; Hon. Justice Michael Akpiroroh and Mrs. Rakia Sarki Ibrahim.
Others include members of the NJC Review Committee -Hon. Justice Ibrahim Ndahi Auta; Hon. Justice Kate Abiri; and Hon. Justice Peter Umeadi. Court processes in respect of the Justice Salami’s suit were served on the respondents on August 16, 2011.
Despite the service of the processes, including the motion for interlocutory injunction on the NJC, it held an emergency meeting on August 18, and dwelt extensively on the issue that formed the res (subject matter) of Justice Salami’s suit. At the end of the meeting, the NJC recommended Justice Salami’s suspension and his retirement. It later communicated this to President Goodluck Jonathan.
In a statement signed by the council’s Deputy Director (Information), Soji Oye, issued after the August 18, meeting, NJC said after deliberating on the two separate reports of its committees on the allegations levelled against the CJN and some Justices of the Court of Appeal, it found "That the allegation made by the President, Court of Appeal, Justice Salami, that Katsina-Alu instructed him to direct the Sokoto Gubernatorial Appeal by Democratic Peoples Party Democratic Peoples Party Democratic Peoples Party of Nigeria, is not true."
Rather, the NJC said it found that the CJN acted in good faith and was motivated by the apparent urge to protect the administration of justice and avoid breach of the peace when he directed that the judgment in the Sokoto gubernatorial appeal be ‘put on hold’ pending the investigation of the petitions he had received on the matter.
The council further maintained that what Salami did constituted a gross misconduct, contrary to Rule 1(1) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Consequently, it decided that Salami "be warned for such unethical conduct which eroded the public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the Judiciary; and apologise in writing to both the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of National Judicial Council, Katsina-Alu, and National Judicial Council within a week."
It also absolved the Justices of the Court of Appeal, Musa Dattijo Mohammad, Paul A. Galinje, John Inyang Okoro, Mas’oud Oredola and Regina O. Nwodo, who served on the Sokoto State Governorship Appeal Panel of any complicity in the matter and therefore had no case to answer.

President Jonathan’s role

While many were still at a loss over the NJC’s decision, President Jonathan confounded all with the haste with which he upheld the NJC’s recommendations, accepted Justice Salami’s suspension and appointed Justice Dalhatu Adamu, the next in rank, as the Acting President, Court of Appeal.
In justifying the President’s decision, his spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, in a statement, said he merely intervened in the crisis to save the Judiciary from itself and avoid a vacuum that would have been created with the NJC’s recommendations as they relate to Justice Salami.
The statement read: "President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is in receipt of a correspondence dated 18th August, 2011, from the National Judicial Council (NJC), recommending the compulsory retirement of Hon. Justice Isa Ayo Salami, OFR, for misconduct in accordance with the provisions of Section 292 (1) (a) (i) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Rule 1 (1) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
"Consequently, President Jonathan, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by Section 238 (4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, has approved the acting appointment of Hon. Justice Dalhatu Adamu to perform the functions of the office of the President of the Court of Appeal pending when all issues relating to the office of the President of the Court of Appeal are resolved."
The Presidency’s swift acceptance of the NJC’s recommendations, observers noted, further confirned the speculation that the entire drama was a product of a highly contrived plot aimed at easing out of the untrammeled Justice Salami from his vantage position as the head of the Appeal Court.
Justice Salami, they argued, was seen as a serious threat in view of his antecedent and the fear that he would not be amenable when he would be required to play the Presidency’s card at the hearing of the petition by the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) against President Jonathan’s election.
This prompted observers to query why President Jonathan appointed a new PCA when the suits instituted by Justice Salami were still pending in the court. They also called to question the legality of the announcement of the appointment of the Acting PCA on a Sunday by President Jonathan.
They also wondered why it was so imperative for the Presidency, which claimed respect for the rule of law, to side-step the requirement that such recommendations should be tabled before the Senate.
The suspicion that the Presidency is uncomfortable with Justice Salami in the saddle has been further confirmed by the recent development arising from the seeming reluctance of President Jonathan to honour the request by the incumbent CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, that Salami be reinstated.
Observers are also not sure if the body language from the Presidency, the recent suit by former Governor Segun Oni seeking Justice Salami’s prosecution for perjury and the NJC’s failure to adopt the recommendations of the Uwais committee are mutually exclusive developments.
Incidentally, Justice Musdapher is allegedly the lone witness who gave evidence which exonerated the immediate past CJN. He was reported to have given evidence that he was at the meeting with Justice Salami and Justice Katsina-Alu, and the directive to disband the tribunal was not given at that meeting.
It was allegedly based on that evidence that the National Judicial Council (NJC) reached the conclusion that the former CJN did not give the directive. Incidentally, again, this lone witness, as the current CJN, has asked President Jonathan to restore Justice Salami to his position, but the President seems to be foot-dragging.
Observers wonder why the Presidency is not willing to deploy the same haste with which it accepted the NJC’s recommendation of last year in acceding to the request to restore Justice Salami to his position.
Another question is: whether the refusal of the NJC to adopt the Uwais committee’s recommendations at its last meeting, the setting up of a fresh reconciliatory committee headed by Justice Aloma Mukhtar and the sudden activism of Oni are not meant to give the President a reason to further delay the implementation of a constitutional prerogative of the NJC.

Justice Salami in the eyes of the people

Despite his travails, Justice Salami is seen by most people as a very principled person, who can not compromise standard.
A former President of the Court of Appeal and ex-chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi, said in a media report: "I know that when he was in the ministry. He was a strong force, competent, hardworking, loyal and very selfless. Salami is a no-nonsense man."
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olaolu Ali, said he knows Justice Salami very well and can describe his private and professional life with confidence.
"Justice Salami is a no-nonsense jurist, a profoundly intelligent person. He is a very courageous person and on the bench, he is one of the brightest that Nigeria has ever produced. To appear before him, you must be prepared because he knows his onions.
"Back at home, he is an elderly and friendly person around here. He is very respectful too. He gives you your regards, young as you may be. He’s an easygoing person; very, very easygoing," the Ilorin-based lawyer said in a recent interview.
Ali said he could vouch for Salami’s discipline where money is involved: "Justice Salami is a very thrifty person. I don’t know his bank account but I know he is a very simply person who cares little about money and the things money can buy. He lives a very frugal life."
Former Attorney General (AG) of Rivers State, Okey Wali (SAN) said: "Salami’s landmark judgments and decisions were very bold especially in the election cases. Some of them are the source of the problem he is having today."
Nigerians await the return of this man to the Court of Appeal where he has made monumental contributions to the nation’s democratic growth.

The way forward

Senior lawyers, who spoke under condition of anonymity because of what they described as "the sensitivity of the matter," said the delay in the recall of Justice Salami, as recommended by the Uwais Committee, is attributable to ego and political considerations.
They advised the Aloma Mukhtar Committee not to deviate from the path identified by the Uwais Committee. To them, acting otherwise will confirm the insinuation that the delay is aimed at effectively keeping Justice Salami away at all cost.
Others, including a former Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu branch, Nurudeen Ogbara and Chairman NBA Ikeja, Adebamigbe Omole also stressed the need to recall Justice Salami.
Ogbara said: "I see no impediment in recalling the man. However, those still benefitting from corrupt practices on the Bench would not like to see him back. There are some election petition cases still going on across the country and we know that the president of the Court of Appeal plays a very prominent role in the determination of these cases.
"So, as long as the man is out of the Bench, the few corrupt elements will continue to have their way and enjoy the loot of corruption. They will continue to enjoy the benefits."
Omole said recalling Justice Salami means restoring confidence in the judiciary.
"I don’t know why they have kept setting up one committee after the other. The previous committees acquitted the man of any wrongdoing, so what is the problem?
"Majority of the members of NJC have expressed desire to have the man back in his position, but a few powerful minority in the NJC do not want the man back and reinstated.
"One expects that at this point in time, we would allow decency to rein.
"Decency suggests that the man should be recalled reinstated and restored back to his position. That is the only way we can equally restore confidence in the judiciary and earn the respect of the common man.

"The powerful minority do not want him back but the best thing for the judiciary is to bring him back and restore him to his position," Omole said.