WITH the stage set for fresh court cases to stop the National Judicial Council (NJC) from considering the recommendation of the judicial reform panel that the suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami, should be reinstated to office, the council has, for the second time, cancelled the meeting called for the consideration of the proposal.A few days after the Justice Muhammadu Uwais-led 29-member panel submitted its report, the Chief Justice of Nigeria and chairman of the council, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, had called an emergency meeting for December 21, 2011, for the purpose of considering the recommendation on Salami, but called same off hurriedly when members of the council reportedly harangued him for allegedly giving more relevance to a report of an advisory body, which the panel was, to the detriment of a constitutional action taken by the council.Musdapher had called a fresh meeting for January 25 and 26, 2012, but the Nigerian Tribune had exclusively learnt that same had also been called off.A tentative arrangement had the council meeting now fixed for February 2 and 3, 2012.A copy of the panel report, which had been exclusively obtained by the Nigerian Tribune also revealed that 11 out of the 29 members did not sign the final report, contrary to the disclosure of Uwais that only three members did not sign it.Those who did not sign the report included former Chief Justices of Nigeria, Justices Alfa Belgore and Aloysius Katsina-Alu, retired justices of the Supreme Court, Justices Kayode Eso and Umaru Kalgo, former Attorneys General of the Federation; Chief Richard Akinjide SAN and Prince Bola Ajibola SAN and President of the Nigerian Bar Assciation (NBA), Mr J.B Daudu SAN.Others are four former presidents of the NBA, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN; Mr O.C.J. Okocha SAN; Mr Olisa Agbakoba SAN and Mr Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN.In the annexure (b) to the report, it was stated that a three-man special sub-committee was created to explore further reconciliation of the dispute between Salami and Katsina-Alu.The three-man panel, which comprised a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Mamman Nasir, retired justices of the Supreme Court, Justice Umaru Kalgo and Prince Ajibola SAN, berated the NJC for suspending Salami for misconduct, when there was no evidence before the panels set up by the council to justify the allegation against him.'The committee (Auta's panel) said that it took judicial notice of the fact that Justice Salami spoke to the mass media to ventilate his differences with Chief Justice Katsina-Alu and by doing so, he contravened the provisions of Rule 1(1) and Rule 2(9) of the Code of Conduct for judicial officers.'However, nowhere in the National Judicial Council Report was any allegation made against Salami for talking to the press or disclosing official information to the public. Tha National Judicial Council Panel only referred to contravention of the Code of Condcut for Judicial Officers in the final address of counsel for Chief Oni and it made no specific findings on this.'There was no evidence before any of the National Judicial Council panels or in any of the petitions to justify any findings that Salami contravened the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers by talking to the mass media. This sums up the findings of the National Judicial Council panels and the recoomendations of the Auta's Committee.'On the whole, there was no evidence to show any form of misconduct on the part of Salami to justify any sanction or punishment. It is not clear what other evidence was used or relied upon by NJC at its emergency meeting of September 8, 2011 to suspend Salami from performing his duties as President of the Court of Appeal. It is also pertinent to observe that the order for suspension was made subjudice.'There is nothing up to this stage to show or prove that Salami is guilty of any misconduct as a result of any allegations made against him by the Chief Justice of Nigeria or in any of the petitions considered by the NJC panel. The contention that Salami lied against the CJN in an affidavit that was never relied on at any trial begs the real issue.'Given the conviction that it was the NJC that wronged Salami, the sub-committee recommended that Salami should be reinstated before he would be persuaded to withdraw his pending case against the council.'This committee, therefore, strongly advises the CJN and the NJC to reconsider its earlier decision on the suspension of Justice Salami and re-instate him in his position. The committee believes that if this is done, Justice Salami would be advised to withdraw his case now pending in court.
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