I know why you are inconsolable over Justice Salami’s salacious suit against Chief Justice of Nigeria Katsina Alu. If we can behold the revealing details in his angry suit, how in a loud whisper, the Chief Priest of Justice tried to force a smelly deal down the throat of Ayo Salami.
I know why you are inconsolable over Justice Salami’s salacious suit against Chief Justice of Nigeria Katsina Alu. If we can behold the revealing details in his angry suit, how in a loud whisper, the Chief Priest of Justice tried to force a smelly deal down the throat of Ayo Salami.
" The Sultan's office is at stake if you clear the road of Justice.” He must have croaked like a college bully staring down the old feeble looking Salami. "So block it!" Salami alleged that because he refused to erect the check point of Injustice, Katsina Alu, a judicial bully, hijacked the road personally and erected the road block. So was constrained to the dustbin, the entire wishes of the ordinary people of Sokoto State to elect the leader of their choice as democracy had promised when they lined up orderly to cast their ballot.
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Now two alarming thoughts must have run through your fast mind. One, that even in the Temple of Justice, market Forces still prevail like in our unstable economy. Two, that Judges too like the bad guys, haggle and batter Justice in a dark corner only to read those lengthy red biro corrected texts to a pathetic public in the open court house.
Judges! We are not talking of ordinary guys here, men! These are Lords of our temple of rights and philosophers of good conduct. They on earth are the next thing to God. That we can touch them and shake hands is a rare priviledge. These guys will pronounce a death sentence on fellow man without batting an eyelid. And that man is killed period. And that they can behave not just like mere mortals but actually like monsters! You wonder what the bad guys should be doing to earn their label. If the revealed can light up such ugliness in the hallowed Assembly of the Philosophers of public conduct, how much are we left with to imagine. What more harm are they doing to themselves at such advanced stage of a career that Chukwudifu Oputa, Kayode Esho and Akinola Aguda wore like a knight's armor? The unrevealed but imaginable refuse in those dark alleys. The weak murmurs of lawyers and other clients of our judges whose offerings are too miserly for the Classy taste of his Lordship. How long has this been going on? Some will ask. But all are convinced that the answer is like forever such that the trade in justice has now become cultural to the bar and bench. Corruption has enveloped, completely our space. 419 is not entirely the competence of the bad guys. Nor is falsehood the preserve of prosperity Pastors alone. Nigeria rots from the head.
And I agree with the reasons why you want both of them to resign before the Egyptian push is mobilised against the injustice and business deals they model on the court floor. And I can already hear the trembling noise from the Camp of Pro Democracy trouble makers who have been idle since Adams Oshiomole joined our oppressors on the high table. We cannot even remember the last time pickets were called. So the Judiciary is up for big embarrassment if these guys wake up from their deserved slumber!
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Believe me, this is bad business for Senior Advocates who earn their high privileges by hurling heavy Ghana Must Go bags in the wee hours of the night looking for direction to the House of a Presiding Judge. There is always some settlement to everything in Nigeria. Such finality, such simplicity to everything.
The aggrieved can grief forever, the unjust will jubilate to the next place of offence.
WHY THEY MUST RESIGN NOW
It makes sense in cultured places that both men resign their positions to give adequate leave for fair and robust investigation of allegations and counter allegations. It doesn't matter who is innocent and why the guilty did it! It is just enough that the system is preserved in dignity and honour. That is the least both men can leave behind them now that the genie is out of the bottle. They lose very little. After all both are very old men in the twilight of retirement. It adds dignity to their wigs if they give a good example to those office holders who claw tenaciously to office when the earth has since shifted from their feet.
SALAMI
Listen to justice Ayo Salami in the hurried suit he deposed to at the Court. He talks of the Sokoto Gubernatorial suit and the trading that Justice Alu made of it.
* I set up panels of the Appeal Court to dispose of the pending petitions including that of Sokoto.
* I was however shocked when subsequent to the setting up of a panel on the Sokoto Gubernatorial election petition appeal, and after all parties had filed and exchange briefs, adopted same and judgement reserved the 1st defendant ( Katsina Alu) summoned me by telephone to his office in Abuja.
* The 1st defendant ( Katsina Alu) asked me to disband the panel I had set up for the appeal on the excuse that if the panel allowed the appeal and removed the Governor, the ripple effect would lead to a removal of our highly revered Sultan of Sokoto.
* The 1st Defendant (Katsina Alu) could not convince me on the logic predicating his reasoning more especially as the Sultan was not a party to the election petition and as there is no nexus between any of the parties and the sultan, so I told him I would not disband the panel.
* The 1st Defendant ( Katsina Alu) then said in the alternative that I should direct the panel of justices to decide against the Appellant.
* To this again, I still said No. That I would not do anything to pervert the cause of justice.
* When the matter came before the 3rd Defendant [NJC], the Committee set up to look into the complaint vindicated me and in clear terms told the 1st Defendant (Katsina Alu), he had no Constitutional and Statutory power to stop proceedings in any division of the Court of Appeal as he did.
* Since then there has been no love lost between me and the 1st Defendant.
* That the appeal in the Sokoto Gubernatorial election petition which was pending before the Sokoto Court of Appeal was eventually dismissed by the Supreme Court on 21st November, 2010 notwithstanding that the appeal was not before the Supreme Court.
In layman's language, Salami alleged that:
1) Katsina Alu, Chief Justice from Benue State, Aondoka and David Mark's area requested that the Sokoto peoples votes should be sold off to the incumbent to pay a price for the preservation of the exalted office of the Sultan!
2) Justice Salami claimed that he refused to be persuaded by the offer. A Honourable refusal!
3) Interesting now, the deals behind our back, The NJC, the overlord of Conduct in the Judiciary was brought to intervene by Justice Salami. Instead of the NJC sacking katsina Alu on the spot , they only slapped him on the wrist and said he was wrong! Remember this is the same NJC which is yet to tell us what they found out in the alleged corrupt telephone calls between Mr. Kalejaiye Esq. SAN and Justices of the Osun Electoral Petitions Tribunal.
4( Katsina Alu, in desperation went ahead to hijack the case and sell the case to the incumbent Governor.
Now, did I get the interpretation right?
There are many who believe Justice Salami has not acted poorly until he withdrew that suit. An action that has extended the immorality of illegal Justice trade offs to him. They state quite convincingly that were Salami to be looking for bigger money, those he plucked down from those unearned positions could handle his material needs better than those to whom he gave Justice. Their argument being that those losers had access to Government funds while those contesting had virtually exhausted the limit of their goodwill from donors and sponsors. Furthermore, Salami's sympathy is more enduring as many believe that the immoral abuse of Elections by President Obasanjo needed a Salami to atone minimally for sins committed. Finally, because he ruled against a Government in power, the PDP, not a few look at that as a celebration of independence and a courageous act worthy of the dignity of a healthy Judiciary.
But first, before we go on, he needs to account for the unusually skewed lottery in favour of some of his Judges. Why fortune decrees the occurrence of a particular combination of Judges for the unfavourable judgements that have turned the PDP into angry and inconsolable animals. Justice Salami must also explain in plain language, why a scandalous suit similar to the one he filed against his promotion was not necessary at the point the petition was hijacked from his desk by Katsina Alu. Just before that case ballooned into gross injustice that the Sokoto Gubernatorial dispute became. Injustice of a shocking proportion to the ordinary people of Sokoto State who gave their votes freely before Katsina Alu allegedly traded it to the Sultan as alleged in Salami's Petition.
1) Why did he remain silent when Katsina Alu commandeered the case from him knowing fully well that the Chief Justice has no responsibility on Election Petition matters
3) When Justice was miscarried and the Chief Justice pronounced those unjust rulings, why did Salami remain silent.
4) How did he now find his way to court when injustice now came knocking on his own door.
Well, when the rain falls, it does not fall on one man's head. And when Justice Salami does not know this at his age, perhaps he needs to soak in the wetness now. When the rights of the most feeble in a community are traded off so ordinarily as in Sokoto because the victim is weak, the Society suffers severe injury because a code of impunity is written into the lexicon of Justice in that Society. What goes around invariable comes around as Katsina Alu attempted to visit injustice on Ayo Salami who remained silent when Alu pronounced injustice on the weak people of Sokoto State.
That Justice Salami needs to resign is underlined by his latest act of acceding to a political settlement. Why did he agree to withdraw the case when the issues therein had sufficiently compromised the image of the Judiciary in the public. Justice Salami, no doubt is no stranger to this Cultism that settles the ordinary man out of his just rights.
KATSINA ALU
There is something spiritual about the disgrace of Katsina Alu. Remember he was not properly sworn in. His swearing in was a DEAL.
He was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on Wednesday 30 December 2009 by his predecessor as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Idris Legbo Kutigi. There was controversy over the ceremony, since in all previous ceremonies the Oath of Office was administered by the President of Nigeria. However, President Umaru Yar'Adua was unavailable on account of ill health since November 2009, and had failed to hand over to his Vice President. This meant that over a period of 24 hours, A corrupt trade occurred. That exchange between the former Chief Justice, Legbo Kutigi, the current one, Katsina Alu and some assuring interests behind the scene created the precedent of two Chief Justices overlapping each other in one day. Nigeria suffered the abnormal controversy of two sitting Chief Justices of the Supreme Court. There are those who believe that because he was not sworn in the normal way, his position is illegitimate!
This is all academic now. The ongoing damages are legitimised by the position he holds. For the Country, quite a few points to worry about with Katsina Alu on seat:
1) Trust, how can we call on this very important word to rescue the very fragile tempers of 2011.
2) How can we trust Katsina Alu's judgement and the Associate Justices he empanels in the Supreme Court from now henceforth
3) How can unity be restored to the suspect committees of his Lordships as we wait in hope to restore the dignity of the bench.
4) How many value suspect incumbents are on the bench since Ibrahim Babangida brought corruption into the hallowed Chambers of Nigerian Judiciary
My conclusion is that, if the Justice system knows what is good for its dignity, integrity and relevance, creating a seamless path to ease out Alu must be the agenda in the next few weeks. Otherwise, the election and its aftermath will be chaotic.
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