Salami saga: The politics, the intrigues of reinstatementIT is a legal drama full of suspense, with legal fireworks darting here and there, spiced with politics. And the issue here is to reinstate or not to reinstate. Two camps have emerged over the recommendation of the National Judicial Council (NJC) that President Goodluck Jonathan should approve the return of Justice Isa Ayo Salami to his former post as the President of the Court of Appeal and the opposing camp seems to have gained upper hand with the president's failure so far to approve the reinstatement by Wednesday.The suspended President of the Court of Appeal was recalled last Friday by the NJC, in a hotly contested meeting, which got the judge recalled by 10 votes against eight. Justice Salami was suspended on August 18, 2011 at the seventh emergency meeting of the NJC following his refusal to tender an apology to the NJC under the erstwhile Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Aloysius Katsina-Alu.Expectations of a reinstatement of Salami were high on Tuesday at the council. But the presidency seems to be in lethargy in acceding to the advice ostensibly because of a pending suit in court filed by a human rights lawyer, Noah Ajare in Abuja for a stay of action.In the said suit no FHC/ABJ/CS/271/201, the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, was prayed to issue a perpetual injunction restraining the president and his agents from starting any actions on the council's advice, pending the determination of the substantive suit.Noah Ajare joined the Attorney-General of the Federation alongside the President in the suit.The plaintiff, through an originating summons, asked the court for 'a declaration that all the meetings, discussions and recommendations for the reinstatement of Salami by the President on the recommendations of the NJC must be put on hold, as it is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void, as the matter is subjudice.'The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has been asked to invoke its powers and abort any move by President Jonathan to reinstate Justice Isa Ayo Salami.In a 22-paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Omolara Adeogun, the plaintiff said he was not against the reinstatement of Salami, but wanted due process of the law to be followed in order not to set an unhealthy precedent capable of sustaining such uncanny controversies in the future.He noted that the matter was no longer personal for the original parties involved, saying it has assumed a national dimension with global attention and as such, entails that caution must be observed.The plaintiff further argued that if there were no extant order of the court, Jonathan might pre-empt the due process of the court.He stressed that the face-off between the former CJN and the PCA shook the judiciary to its foundation and climaxed when the PCA instituted a court action against the then CJN at the Federal High Court, saying there was a grave concern among Nigerians particularly at the Bar, concerning the integrity of the judiciary.The plaintiff, who described the judiciary as the most sacred arm of the three arms of government, said as the last hope of the common man, its sacredness ought to be preserved through the instrumentality of the law and due process.Suspicions are however rife in some quarters that the filing of the court action was a grand plan to take advantage of the court process to delay the reinstatement of Salami.How it all startedThe NJC had on August 18, 2011 recommended to the President to suspend Salami, a recommendation Jonathan adopted within two days, leading to the elevation of Justice Dalhatu Adamu to the said office albeit in acting capacity as the most senior justice of the court.The suit he filed challenging his suspension was pending at the Court of Appeal following a reference to it by the high court. The Appeal Court was to determine the issue of whether the case filed by Salami was an employment dispute or not.NJC had recommended Salami for suspension after he refused to apologise to the council and Justice Katsina-Alu after a panel found him to have 'lied' against the CJN.The council, in a statement by its Director of Administration, Mr. E. I. Odukwu, directed Salami to handover to the next most senior justice of the Appeal Court.The statement reads: 'Pursuant to the powers conferred on the National Judicial Council in the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, Hon. Justice Isa Ayo Salami, OFR, President of the Court of Appeal has been suspended from office with effect from today, 18th August, 2011.'The decision was reached at the seventh emergency meeting of the Council held on 18th August, 2011''Salami refused and headed for the court. In the suit, Salami asked the Court to set aside the proceedings and findings of the investigation panel headed by retired Justice Umaru Abdullahi and the recommendation of the panel headed by Justice Ibrahim Auta.He asked the court to declare that the setting up of the NJC Investigation Committee and its composition were in gross violation of the principles of natural justice and his constitutionally guaranteed right to fair hearing under Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution and is therefore unconstitutional, null and void.Before he was suspended, he was given one week to tender an apology to both the council and Katsina-Alu over his allegation on oath that the CJN attempted to manipulate the course of justice in the Sokoto gubernatorial election dispute.The council said it found Salami's allegation as a misconduct because it violated Rule1 (1) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers.Salami and other justices of the Court of Appeal that sat on the Osun and Ekiti gubernatorial disputes were also absolved of any misconduct in the handling of the cases.The call logs presented by two sacked governors - Segun Oni (Ekiti) and Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun) to establish allegation of professional misconduct against Justice Salami were also dismissed as lacking in authenticity and evidential value.Excerpts from the NJC's sixth emergency meeting of August 9, 2011 read that the NJC had deliberated on the two separate reports of its committees on the allegations levelled against Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, and some Justices of the Court of Appeal.That the allegation made by Justice Salami that Justice Katsina-Alu instructed him to direct the Sokoto gubernatorial appeal to dismiss the appeal by the Democratic Peoples Party of Nigeria is not true.'The council found that the Chief Justice of Nigeria acted in good faith and was motivated by the apparent urge to protect the administration of justice and avoid breach of 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.'Therefore, the Chief Justice of Nigeria was exonerated of the allegation of interference with Court proceedings in the Sokoto State gubernatorial election appeal.'That the Justices of Court of Appeal who served on the Sokoto State governorship appeal panel namely: Justices Musa Dattijo Mohammad, Paul A. Galinje, John Inyang Okoro, Mas'oud Oredola and Regina O. Nwodo, have no issue to answer.'That Justice Isa Ayo Salami, and other Justices who served on the Ekiti and Osun States gubernatorial election petition appeal Tribunal namely: Justices Clara Bata Ogunbiyi, O. Ariwoola, Chiman Centus Nweze and Adamu Jauro have no 'issue' to answer as it found that the call logs relied upon by the petitioners lacked authenticity and evidential value and therefore no sufficient evidence to establish unethical communication between them.'Having therefore established that the allegation by the President, Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, against the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, regarding the Sokoto Gubernatorial election appeal was false, Council decided that it is a misconduct contrary to Rule 1(1) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Consequently, Council further decided that the President of the Court of Appeal should:(1) be warned for such unethical conduct which eroded the public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the Judiciary; and(2) apologise in writing to both the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of NJC, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu and NJC within a week from today.'The NJC had earlier constituted a committee led by Justice Alooma Muktar to help resolve the impasse created by the suspension of Justice Salami. The Alooma panel was mandated to liaise with all interested parties in the suspension saga and submit a recommendation to the NJC for consideration.The committee, which also had Olisa Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association as a member, reportedly met with the suspended judge and proposed that he accept to retire from the bench as a condition for his reinstatement. But the source added that Justice Salami rejected the condition, asserting that he was willing to continue his lawsuit against his illegal removal. The source said that Justice Alooma, Justice Pius Aderemi (retired), Rotimi Akeredolu and Agbakoba supported his position that he should not retire.Salami's suspensionPresident Jonathan has, in a terse statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Rueben Abati, stated that Jonathan had approved the recommendation of the NJC to suspend Salami from office over his refusal to apologize to Katsina-Alu and the NJC as recommended by the Auta committee.The statement reads: 'President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is in receipt of a correspondence dated 18th August, 2011, from the NJC, recommending the compulsory retirement of Justice Isa Ayo Salami, 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.'In a tone of acknowledgement of the controversy surrounding the controversial suspension of the Justice Salami's by a seven-man quorum out of 24 NJC members, the statement further stated: 'Consequently, President Jonathan, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by Section 238 (4) of the 1999 Constitution'has approved the acting appointment of 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.'Police orderlies to Justice Salami were withdrawn purportedly on the orders of the Police High Command.The acrimony between Katsina-Alu and Salami blew open months after some aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) started a campaign against some justices of the Court of Appeal. But all the committees raised cleared Justice Salami of any wrongdoing. His sin, it appeared, was his face-off with then CJN Katsina-Alu. However, a 29-member stakeholders' Judicial Reform Committee raised by the incumbent CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher on October 14, 2011 to review the crisis in the judiciary recommended Justice Salami's reinstatement.The MTN/NCC connectionThe General Manager Operations with the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), Solomon Ogundele and former Osun State governor Oyinlola accused the MTN Nigeria Communications Limited of colluding with regulatory agencies to divert over N1 trillion belonging to NITEL by fraudulent means.The allegation was made by the duo in separate affidavits they deposed to in support of a suit filed against MTN and the regulatory agency before a Federal High Court, Abuja by three plaintiffs including Oyinlola, Osun and Ekiti State chapters of the PDP. They accused the defendants of allegedly supplying incomplete call data during the sittings of the NJC Special Investigation Panel (SIP) on the controversy, which surrounded the governorship elections in both states.According to Ogundele, in a 62-paragraph affidavit he deposed to and filed before the court on May 9, 2012, he alleged that the agency deliberately and in collusion with the telecom company and others, introduced a fraudulent interconnection agreement which allocated specific, but excessive value to call termination as a tool for perpetrating massive fraud and money laundering.It would be recalled that the Justice Umaru Abdullahi-led NJC probe panel had cleared Justice Salami and other jurists they investigated, based on the call logs supplied by MTN, which the plaintiffs alleged were incomplete and inadequate.Dissatisfied, Oyinlola and the PDP slammed a N150 billion suit on MTN for allegedly doctoring those call data records, while also praying the court to revoke the operating licence of MTN.On his part, Oyinlola in a 37-paragraph affidavit, averred that the failure of the first defendant to release correct call data imparted negatively on his petition investigated by the NJC.According to Oyinlola: 'If the first defendant had released adequate and complete call data records to the relevant security agencies and such call records are submitted or tendered before the NJC Special Investigative Panel, the recommendations of the report review committee of the NJC and its Panel would have been different.'In a 68-paragraph statement of claim, the plaintiffs claimed that 'sometime in 2010, the Governorship Election Appeal Tribunals in Ibadan and Ilorin nullified the elections of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola (third plaintiff) and Chief Segun Oni (Ekiti State) and declared Mr. Rauf Aregbesola and Dr. Kayode Fayemi as the duly elected Governors of Osun and Ekiti states respectively.'As an expression of their dissatisfaction with the said judgment the two sacked governors forwarded petitions to the NJC alleging corruption against certain judicial officers in the handling of governorship election appeals in respect of Osun and Ekiti states.'During the course of investigations carried out by an arm of government's law enforcement and security agencies in the country, the office of the Area Commander Nigeria Police Force, Area 'G' Command Headquarters, Ogba, Lagos did request that MTN Nigeria furnish it with information on telephone subscriber number 08034004887 and 08034010700. MTN did furnish the aforementioned Area Command Office the call data records of the two numbers aforementioned...'ReactionsAs expected, reactions have been diverse since the NJC recommendation that Salami be reinstated. While the advice was known to have divided the PDP with serious politicking dogging a judiciary matter, individual Nigerians and organisations have also reacted to the whole drama as it is unfolding.Chief Emeka Ngige SAN, saw it as a welcome development. 'The Court of Appeal as an intermediate court in the hierarchy of courts in Nigeria is too important a court to be left without a head in the last 10 months. The action of NJC though coming late is still commendable having regard to the powerful forces who want Justice Salami to be in the cooler until he reaches retirement age in October 2013. Already a lot of damage had been inflicted on the image of the Court of Appeal and on the psyche of the justices following the forced absence of Justice Salami. Incidents of conflicting judgments, breach of the doctrine of stare decisis and rumours of corruption had worsened and/or escalated since the illegal suspension was clamped on the PCA,' he said recently.However, A United States-based group, Justice For All Nations (JFAN), has described the reinstatement of Justice Salami, as a bad omen for the judiciary in Nigeria.JFAN said in a statement issued on Sunday by its coordinator, Dr. Dada Popoola, that it was saddening that Chief Justice Musdapher, whose evidence nailed Justice Salami before the NJC Probe Panel, could champion his (Salami) reinstatement.JFAN said: 'It is sad that it was the same Justice Dahiru Musdapher, who told the NJC probe panel on oath that Justice Salami lied on oath against the former CJN, Justice Allysius Katsina Alu, was the one in the forefront of the struggle for the reinstatement of the suspended PCA.'The implication of this is that the evidence Justice Musdapher gave at the NJC probe panel was not true and that he (Musdapher) actually lied on oath against Justice Salami. This further implies that Nigeria now has a liar as its CJN, which is sad,' the group said.Following President Jonathan's reluctance to approve the recommendations of the NJC, Ngige told The Guardian: 'My attitude to the whole saga is to watch and see. The precedent they lay today will turn out to haunt them tomorrow. The Presidency, a whole Presidency, is waiting for somebody to go to court before it acts on the NJC recommendation! We are making Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations. No country will take us serious with what is happening in the Salami saga. The President should simply respect his office by restoring Justice Salami back to his office. That is the least the president can do in this circumstance.'It is equally unfortunate that the NBA is now colluding with the reactionary forces that would not want Salami back to his office by her ominous silence on the issue. NBA cannot afford to abandon its major objective of maintaining and defending the integrity and independence of the judiciary at this point in time.'A reliable source at the NJC also said: 'We suspected that some officers sat on the notice in the last four days for God knows what. They might have been influenced by forces that do not want Salami back.'I think these forces spent the last four days to go back to the drawing board to strategise on how to frustrate the recall of Salami. For instance, it was not a mere coincidence that the letter was sent to the government at about the same time a suit was being filed at a Federal High Court by a lawyer, Noah Ajare,' the source said, adding that 'the same Ajare had gone to court early this year to stop the NJC from recalling Salami. The case which ought to come up in March has not been heard. But without prejudice to the matter, the NJC went ahead to do the needful.'Without allowing the court to hear his initial application, the same person has filed a new matter to restrain the President and the Attorney-General of the Federation from recalling Salami. This is a gross abuse of the court process.'Another source who spoke in confidence, said: 'I think there is a grand plan to take advantage of the court process to delay the reinstatement of Salami. They will say the matter is subjudice.'The plot is to drag the reinstatement matter till Salami is due for retirement in October 2013. But this may lead to more chaos in the judiciary.
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