HE is among the few who did not stay too long at the Supreme Court of Nigeria, yet, the impact of his service, both at the Bench and other national duties, is enormous and unbeatable.His impact incontrovertibly equals, and in most cases, overwhelms the record of those who spent a decade or more at the apex court.Justice Niki Tobi, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria who was appointed to the apex court in 2002, left graciously in April 2010, after spending only eight years at the apex court at the mandatory age of 70.His legal competence and illuminating rulings are the obvious factors that distinguished him among his contemporaries.Tobi is also a man of service. He arguably ranks among the few (living or dead) justices, who have handled outstanding national assignments in varying capacities.The Vice-President Namadi Sambo described him as 'a rare gem whose legal competence stands him out among his contemporaries in the country's judiciary.'Sambo stated this during the launch of two books: 'Justice Niki Tobi: The Oracle of Law' and 'Justice Niki Tobi: Elections Petitions' written by Joshua Alabo in honour of retired Justice Niki Tobi in Abuja.Tobi is a highly privileged member of the Bench. Apart from practicing law, he went into the academics and rose to the position of a Professor of Law before joining the Bench. His wealth of experience, without doubt, aided his performance at the Bench. He was one of those who made the Supreme Court of Nigeria tick. As a brilliant law teacher and lawyer, he represented towering excellence at the apex court.He is a man of spotless character and unblemished integrity. And these are manifested in his numerous decisions. It was Justice Tobi who presided over the illegal deduction suit between the Federal Government and the states over deductions from the Federation Account and ordered the FG to settle with the 14 States within two months.The apex court gave the order January 26, 2009 following multiple suits filed by the states, seeking an order directing the Federal Government to refund to them monies in excess of N5 trillion.The plaintiffs' alleged that the fund ought to have entered the distributable pool, called the Federation Account, but was diverted by the Federal Government to finance its projects. This, they contended, was in breach of Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution.The projects, according to the states, included power, railways, servicing of debt owed the Paris Club and financing of Federal Inland Revenue and Nigerian Customs Services.Another popular decision given by Justice Tobi involved the effort of the law firm of Olujimi and Akeredolu, to issue a writ on behalf oftheir client as legal practitioners. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, made it clear that a law firm was not thesame as a legal practitioner.The case arose from Oyo State High Court, Ibadan Judicial Division, before JusticeAkinteye, before passing through the Appeal Court to the Supreme Court.The facts of the case: One Amos Oketade was a tenant of Mrs. Olayinka Adewunmi andfour others, who sued as administrator and beneficiary of Mrs. Juhana Oyede at anapartment situated at 2, Irawo Lane, Agbowo, in a recovery of premises matter at theChief Magistrate's Court where Amos Oketade was the respondent.Judgement was delivered against the respondent and was ordered to deliver uppossession of the premises to his landlord within three weeks. He filed anapplication for stay of execution, which was refused and subsequently made a similarapplication to the High Court of Ibadan, where he obtained a stay order.Displeased, the respondent filed another application at the Court of Appeal, to setaside the stay order granted by the High Court. The Court of Appeal then went aheadto grant the application of the respondent as the stay order was rescinded with acost of N5,000.However, Oketade decided to appeal to the Supreme Court and the respondent'scounsel, Idowu Alabi, raised a preliminary objection that the appeal was incompetentin that both the notice of appeal and the applicant's brief of argument were notissued by a legal practitioner known to law, citing Section 74(1) of the EvidenceAct.Mr. Alabi drew the attention of the court to Olujimi and Akeredolu and submittedthat being a name of a firm and not of a legal practitioner, it offends Section 2(1)and 24 of the Legal Practitioners' Act.In a lead judgment, Justice Niki Tobi, said it did not appear that counsel forthe appellant had an answer for the objection.He stated: 'There is a big legal difference between the name of a firm of legal practitionersand the name of a legal practitioner and that while the name of Olujimi andAkeredolu is a firm with some corporate existence, the name of a legal practitioneris a name qua solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria which has nocorporate connotation as both carry different legal entities in our jurisprudenceof parties, one cannot be substituted for the other because they are not synonymous.It is clear that Olujimi and Akeredolu is not a name of a legal practitioner inNigeria'. He subsequently dismissed the appeal.Niki Tobi said further: 'I go further to take the merit of the appeal. A landlordhas an unfettered legal right to terminate a tenancy upon giving adequate notice. The appellant has moved to three courts in his dogged effort to remain permanentlyglued to the property. In sum, I order that the appellant must vacate possession within three months fromthe date of this judgment. I order, consequently, that he pays all the rent due up todate of his vacating possession to the respondent. I award N50, 000 cost in favour ofthe respondent.'It was also Justice Tobi who laid to rest the controversy surrounding the legality or otherwise of the conduct of the April 21, 2007 presidential election and affirmed the victory of the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Justice Tobi who read the lead judgment made the following declaratory statements: 'A petitioner who contests the legality or unlawfulness of votes cast in an election and the subsequent result must tender in evidence all the necessary documents by way of forms and other documents used at the election'.The judge in the lead judgment went ahead to specify the documents. He said the documents were amongst those in which the results of the votes are recorded. That is, Forms EC8A; EC8B; and EC8C.He also stated that a petitioner must call eyewitnesses to testify as to the illegality or unlawfulness of the votes cast and prove that the illegality or unlawfulness substantially affected the result of the election. The implication of the statement is that a petitioner must lead evidence in each and all the polling units complained about in his petition. There is no room for so-called supervisory polling agents who were supposed to be ubiquitous in order to be able to testify as to the happenings in the various polling units. But that was both legally and physically impossible and unfeasible, according to Justice Tobi.He further held: 'Courts deal only with evidence before them, which are procedurally built on arid legalism and do not go on a frolic journey to collect inculpatory or exculpatory evidence'.Justice Tobi went on to say that Courts of law cannot go to the market places of public opinion to shop for evidences on which to base their judgments, unless such opinions represent or present the state of the law. Rather, they must wait for evidences and where they found none, the petition must fail, and indeed the Election Tribunal, must as a matter of law dismiss the petition.Apart from his role of dispensing justice at the apex court, Justice Tobi chaired vital and key committees in Nigeria. Always available to national assignments, he headed the Constitution Drafting Committee under General Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1999 aimed at finding an expression to mollify disenchanted Nigerians as a prelude to civil governance. The military government later decreed its recommendations into law.Earlier on in November 11, 1998, he had chaired the Constitution Debate Co-ordinating Committee (CDCC), which was charged with the responsibility to 'pilot the debate, co-ordinate and collate views and recommendations canvassed by individuals and groups and submit (the) report not later than 31 December 1998.' The Head of State, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, General Abubakar in his inauguration speech, called for 'fresh ideas' on the contentious issues in the 1995 Draft Constitution. Justice Tobi and his group made a good work of that assignment and on good time too.Justice Tobi was also the chairman of the Judicial Commission of inquiry into the Jos civil disturbances of dark September 7 to September 14, 2001. He completed the assignment on time and submitted its report in September 2002.Above all, Justice Tobi may be mostly remembered as the Chairman of the President Olusegun Obasanjo's National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) in 2005, which ended up in controversy but made far-reaching recommendations.The committee submitted a six-volume report of its deliberations to the Nigerian President.The recommendations, which formed the basis of a constitutional amendment, include the use of electronic voting to stem electoral fraud in the country. Others are the restructuring of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), participation of Nigerians in the Diaspora in future elections and review of the existing formula for sharing the revenue from the federation account.A nationalist to the core, Justice Tobi has this to say in his decision in Onagoruwa v. IGP: 'Nigeria is a democracy and by the grace of Almighty God, it will remain a democracy for all times. The foundation of any democracy is anchored on the rule of law both in its conservative and contemporary meaning. Putting it naively, we are paid mainly and essentially to uphold the rule of law in the entire polity. And so once we fail to uphold the rule of law, anarchy, despotism, and totalitarianism will pervade the entire society. The social equilibrium will be broken. Law and order breaks down'We as judges cannot afford to see the society decay to such irreparable level. We must rise up fully to our duties by vindicating the tenets of the rule of law in our practised democracy.'Born July 14, 1940 in Esanma, Bomadi Local Council of Delta State, he obtained his law degrees at the Universities of Lagos (1966-77) and Nsukka (1979-83) on part-time basis. He later taught law and rose to become a Professor at the University of Maiduguri between 1982 and 1985. He was the Dean of Faculty of Law and deputy Vice-Chancellor (academic services), University of Maiduguri. He was also in Universities of Calabar (1983-84) and Enugu (1990).He joined the Bench in 1985 as Judge of the High Court of Rivers State where he served till 1990. He was moved to the Court of Appeal Lagos in 1990 and served there till 1993. He was later moved to Enugu Court of Appeal in the same 1993.He was promoted Justice of the Supreme Court in 2002 following the retirement of Justice Aldolphus Karibi- Whyte from the Supreme Court.
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