12 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 SOUTH-WEST PDP STAKEHOLDERS’, DURING AN INTERACTIVE SESSION WITH THE PARTY’S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, IN IBADAN, YESTERDAY •From left: Former governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose; former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu; former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, and former governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Photos: Dare Fasube. •From left: Jide Adeniji, Abdullahi Maibashira, and Sen. Dino Melaye, at the occasion. •From left: Oyo state Deputy Governor, Bayo Lawal; Speaker, Oyo House of Assembly, Debo Ogundokun; PDP South-West Deputy National Chairman, Taofeek Arapaja, with other officers of the party. •A cross section of PDP Stakeholders at the meeting.
BY ISE-OLUWA IGE In this report, Vangfuard Law and Human Rights examines relevant provisions in the 1999 Constitution on the powers of appointment and discipline of judges of superior courts of records in the country; dissects the ratio decidendi in the February 25, 2022 judgment of the Appeal Court which voided the 2014 compulsory retirement of Justice Gladys Olotu from the high court bench; scavenges the likely implications of the Appeal Court verdict on all the disciplinary actions so far taken by the executive arm of government against errant judges in Nigeria on the sole recommendations of the NJC without any recourse to FJSC and argues that the awaited pronouncement of the S’Court on the powers of NJC regarding judges’ discipline is one that must not be delayed further for the purpose of stability of the third arm of government. EDITORIAL TEAM Ise-Oluwa Ige, PhD Innocent Anaba Ikechukwu EDITORIAL Nnochiri Innocent Henry Ojelu Anaba ( Editor) Send your mails and enquiries Ikechukwu to: Nnochiri lawandhumanrights Henry Ojelu @vanguardngr.com Onozure Dania 08179614306/08152060944 Apprehension as S’Court sets to review powers of NJC to discipline judges *Supreme Court of Nigeria. EXCEPT the Supreme Court of Nigeria rules otherwise, the powers of discipline solely exercised by the National Judicial Council, NJC, in the last 22 years, over serving judicial officers in superior courts of records nationwide, may be whittled down. It will be recalled that a threemember panel of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, had on February 25, 2022, declared that the National Judicial Council, NJC, under the law, does not have the sole powers to discipline erring judges in the country without recourse to the Federal Judicial Service Commission, FJSC. Specifically, the intermediate appellate court had ruled that the FJSC, given the provisions of the constitution, must be aware of any infraction committed by any erring judge and make recommendations regarding the affected judicial officer to the NJC before the Council itself can proceed with investigation of such judicial officer and possible recommendation for sanction to the applicable head of the executive arm of government for endorsement. The decision which appears a time-bomb, has fundamentally altered the status quo. This is so because the NJC had solely exercised the powers of discipline over judges since 1999 when it was established by section 153 of the 1999 Constitution without any recourse to the FJSC. In the event the apex court sustains the reasoning of the Court of Appeal, it is not unlikely that there could be a floodgate of lawsuits by many judicial officers who were previously sanctioned by sitting Presidents or state governors upon recommendations by the NJC between 1999 when the present Constitution was decreed into law by the Federal Military Government, and 2022 when the case law in question came into being. Fully aware of the dangerous implications of the decision, the National Judicial Council did not file its appeal to the judgment immediately until after it had consulted widely on what its position on the matter would be. In fact, before the NJC could act, time allowed by law to appeal was already spent. According to NJC’s Chief Legal Officer, Uju Lisa Ekwulu, the Council after meetings, decided to hire a consortium of lawyers led by Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) to handle the sensitive issue at the apex bench. In an affidavit deposed to by Ekwulu to secure the leave of the court to appeal the decision out of time, she disclosed that the NJC on April 25, 2022 briefed new counsel, made up of a consortium of lawyers headed by Prince Lateef O. Fagbemi, SAN to lead other distinguished senior members of the bar, namely: Paul Usoro, SAN; Dr. Garba Tetengi, SAN; Muiz Banire, SAN and Yakubu Maikasuwa, Esq., to file an appeal to the Supreme Court challenging the Court of Appeal’s decision. Ekwulu’s exact words in the affidavit: “I know as a fact that the delay in briefing the consortium of new lawyers to represent the Appellant/Applicant was due to the administrative bottlenecks and red-tapes involved in the process of briefing an external counsel/solicitor in the Appellant’s Council. “Although at the time of briefing Prince Lateef O. Fagbemi, SAN, and the consortium of lawyers so briefed, the time prescribed by the rules of the Honourable Court for bringing an appeal had not lapsed but was significantly spent.” The deponent averred that she was informed by NJC’s lead counsel, Prince Fagbemi (SAN) that “the consortium of lawyers met three times inclusive of 19th May, 2022 to agree on what and how to proceed with this matter. “Unfortunately, his earlier commitment(s) as a member of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, LPPC, which has been meeting repeatedly in May, 2022 made him unable to get to the work on time and conclude same, until the time for the filing of this Application had lapsed; “That he knows as a fact that the Appellant/Applicant is out of time within which to file its Notice of Appeal and there is the need to seek the leave of the Honourable Court to file the Notice of Appeal out of time.” The application before the court is meant to regularise the process filed by the NJC before the Supreme Court to set aside the Court of Appeal decision on the extent of powers exercisable by the NJC in judges’ discipline. Genesis of constitutional suit before S’Court While the matter was still in court, the baton of leadership at the National level had changed hands from Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to President Muhammadu Buhari who was touted as a nononsense Army General with zero-tolerance for corruption and injustice Vanguard Law and Human Rights reports that Justice Olotu was appointed a Federal High Court Judge by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on July 28, 2000, and inaugurated by the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais on September 1, 2000. Olotu had a glorious time in the judiciary right from her days in the Edo State judiciary where she started as a Magistrate in 1991 and climbed the judiciary ladder until she was found appointable as a judge of the Federal High Court of Vanguard, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 — 13 Nigeria in 2000. She benefitted from the first few appointments President Olusegun Obasanjo made into the Federal High Court bench after he came into power in May 1999. But sometime in 2013/2014 when the leadership of the NJC was under the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mariam Aloma Muhktar, not less than six petitions were written against Justice Gladys Olotu Ṡome were alleging corruption while there was one alleging infraction of the constitutional provision on the maximum time allowed by law to deliver judgment in a case handled by a judge to guard against justice delay. The judge was served copies of the petitions while she was invited to appear before a Fact-Finding Committee set up to investigate all the allegations in the petitions. After the first committee sat, another probe panel was set up by Justice Aloma-led NJC to look into the petitions’ grey areas in the report of the first panel. The second Committee eventually found Justice Olotu guilty on a lone count of delivering judgment in a case out of time allowed by law. Afterwards, the NJC subsequently recommended Justice Gladys Olotu to Dr Jonathan Goodluck who was the President at the time, for compulsory retirement. The Acting Director of Information of the NJC, Soji Oye, had, in a statement, explained in 2014 thus: “The National Judicial Council, under the Chairmanship of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, at its meeting which was held on February 26, 2014, recommended the compulsory retirement from office of Justice G . K. Olotu of the Federal High Court and Justice U. A. Inyang of High Court of Justice of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, respectively for gross misconduct.” The statement said the recommendation for compulsory retirement of the two judges was based on findings made by the NJC after investigations into allegations contained in petitions brought against them. According to the statement, the NJC had found that Justice Olotu “failed to deliver judgment in Suit No. FHC/UY/250/2003, 18 months after the final address by all the counsel in the suit, contrary to the constitutional provisions that judgments should be delivered within a period of 90 days.” By the decision of the NJC, the career path of Justice Olotu was truncated as she was sacked from office on February 26, 2014 at the age of 54 years. Although Justice Olotu was directed to proceed on suspension pending the approval of its recommendation by the Head of the federal executive arm of government, former President Goodluck Jonathan did not waste time to give his approval. The then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, had announced that Olotu’s compulsory retirement took effect from Monday, March 3, 2014. Justice Olotu kicks, sues NJC, FG Three days after Justice Olotu was effectively removed from the bench, she approached a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja with an application of certiorari to quash the recommendation of the NJC and invalidate the approval granted by the President on her sack. That was March 6, 2014. Joined in the suit as co-respondents were the former President Jonathan, the NJC, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, and the Attorney-General of the Federation. But the Federal Government in its written submission had asked the court to strike out the suit. In the preliminary objection filed by its counsel, Taiwo Abidogun, from the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the government said the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit on the account that sections 251 and 254 of the 1999 Constitution exclusively conferred jurisdiction on matters pertaining to the employment and retirement of Justice Olotu on the National Industrial Court, NIC. The matter eventually moved to the NIC where Justice Olotu’s team of lawyers led by Dr Alfred Eghobamien, SAN; Ladi Rotimi- Williams, SAN and Sunday Ameh, SAN, argued that section 36 of the 1999 Constitution was breached by the NJC and its Investigative Panel in arriving at their recommendation for her compulsory retirement. Justice Olotu further contended that the petition against her, upon which NJC acted, bordered on her failure to deliver a judgment within 90 days and not on misconduct that could carry heavy punishment such as compulsory retirement. She complained that the recommendation by the NJC to the President for her compulsory retirement as a High Court Judge was done in bad faith and in breach of extant codes and rules applicable to her appointment. She said she got to know about her sack on February 27, 2014, through a press statement the NJC released to the media. While the matter was still in court, the baton of leadership at Continues on Page 14 C M Y K
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