Chief Justice Dahiru Musdapher of Nigeria’s Supreme Court may have ordered the disbandment of a fraudulent judicial panel set up by the President of the Court of Appeal to hand back a disputed senatorial seat to Andy Uba of the Peoples Democratic Party. Two sources within the judiciary told SaharaReporters that Justice Musdapher had received complaints and protests from several justices as well as lawyers troubled by the decision of Justice Dalhatu Adamu, President of the Court of Appeal, to appoint a panel of appellate justices to review a judgment handed down by another panel of the same court.
Chief Justice Dahiru Musdapher of Nigeria’s Supreme Court may have ordered the disbandment of a fraudulent judicial panel set up by the President of the Court of Appeal to hand back a disputed senatorial seat to Andy Uba of the Peoples Democratic Party. Two sources within the judiciary told SaharaReporters that Justice Musdapher had received complaints and protests from several justices as well as lawyers troubled by the decision of Justice Dalhatu Adamu, President of the Court of Appeal, to appoint a panel of appellate justices to review a judgment handed down by another panel of the same court.
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SaharaReporters had earlier reported that Mr. Uba, a former aide to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, had bribed Justice Adamu and a few other justices of the Court of Appeal to reverse a ruling by a panel of justices that nullified his senatorial “election” and ordered a new election for the Anambra South senatorial seat.
“Some of the justices of the Court of Appeal complained to the CJN that it is highly unethical for the President of the court to set up a new panel to review a ruling given by a competent panel of the same court which overturned the election of Andy Uba as a senator from Anambra state,” said one source.
Another source, who is close to a justice of the Court of Appeal, added: “Chief Andy Uba already has a reputation for trying to taint the image of the judiciary through corrupt inducement. Justice Adamu should have been more careful when Uba approached him to ask for the setting up of a review panel.” The source added that Uba’s lawyers should have filed an appeal at the Supreme Court if their client felt that the panel that invalidated his election acted unethically or outside of its mandate.
The initial ruling by the appellate panel had ordered an election rerun between Andy Uba and Chuma Nzeribe, the plaintiff and senatorial candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). Instead of preparing for a fresh election, Mr. Uba approached the President of the Court of Appeal and a few justices of the Court of Appeal with a massive bribe sum of several hundred million naira. Justice Adamu subsequently set up a bizarre panel to review the initial ruling by the original panel that ordered a rerun.
Last week, the new five-judge panel headed by Justice Denton West, ordered the electoral commission not to go ahead with the rerun election scheduled for February 15, 2012. A source within the Court of Appeal described Justice Denton West as one of the most corrupt justices in the appellate court. “The appointment of the review panel was questionable. The choice of Justice Denton West to head the panel was even more troubling to many,” said the source.
Andy Uba and his brothers, Chris Uba and Ugochukwu Uba, have a notorious record of bribing members of the judiciary, especially over election matters. The Uba brothers came to national spotlight during the Obasanjo presidency from 1999 to 2007.
In 2003, two justices of the Court of Appeal, Okwuchukwu Opene and David Adedoyin Adeniji, were dismissed from the judiciary after the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC) found that they accepted bribes of N12 million to uphold Ugochukwu Uba’s “election” as a senator. Despite the justices’ dismissal, Mr. Ugochukwu Uba, a former lecturer at the University of Nigeria, was allowed to serve out his tenure at the Senate.
In 2007, Andy Uba was imposed as the governor of Anambra in a fraudulent election marked by massive rigging, violence and inflation of votes. Two weeks after he was sworn in, a panel of the Supreme Court removed him from office after ruling that the tenure of incumbent Governor Peter Obi had not run out.
After that ruling, Uba made several trips to the Supreme Court as well as the Court of Appeal in a futile attempt to bribe the justices to reverse his removal.
A source close to Uba told SaharaReporters that the former domestic aide to President Obasanjo was not aware that Chief Justice Musdapher had intervened to stop the Justice Denton West review panel. The source disclosed that Uba had made “necessary arrangements” to win in a rerun election. “Even Governor Peter Obi is working to ensure that Chief Uba will triumph if there is a new election,” said the source, adding that APGA’s candidate, Chuma Nzeribe, was now depending on the financial support of Ifeanyi Uba (no relative of Andy Uba), the owner of Capital Oil.
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