When judges danced to politicians’ beats
Politicians continue to reap from
the diminishing esteem of the judiciary as allegations of corruption and
the self-inflicted culture of issuing conflicting orders continue to
erode the integrity of the third arm of government, ADE ADESOMOJU and RAMON OLADIMEJI write
At no time in the recent past has the judiciary faced a greater challenge than the one it is currently enmeshed in.
Firstly, the judiciary and its officers
are contending with allegations of corruption which readily stick, no
matter how frivolous they are or how flippantly they are made.
This worsened when the operatives of the
Department of State Services carried out a simultaneous raid on the
houses of some judges between October 7 and 8, and claimed that it had
recovered large sums of money in foreign and local currencies from the
houses of three of the judges.
Without the DSS having to say more, the
impression which the public immediately took away from it was that the
various sums of money recovered from the judges were beyond the judges’
legitimate earnings and so the money could only have been proceeds of
bribery.
In their various letters sent to the
outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, after their
arrest and subsequent release, two affected Justices of the Supreme
Court, Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro, tried to explain how
the money recovered from their homes came about, with Ngwuta even
claiming that part of the money was planted in his house.
But if the claims of the apex court
justices impacted on the opinion of the public, it only served to
strengthen the general belief that the monies were proceeds of bribery.
The impact of the DSS raid on the
judiciary reflected on Tuesday, when members of a special three-man
panel raised by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab
Bulkachuwa, withdrew from the appeals relating to the orders of the
Federal High Court recognising Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim as the governorship
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State ahead of the
election scheduled for November 26.
Members of the panel withdrew based on allegations of bribery levelled against them.
In an emotion-invoking response, the
head of the panel, Justice Jumai Sankey, denied all the allegations
contained in the petition sent to Justice Bulkachuwa by a respondent in
four out of the five pending appeals, Biyi Poroye.
Poroye, who belongs to the Ali Modu
Sheriff faction of the PDP, was among the plaintiffs that filed a suit
and obtained the order which made the Independent National Electoral
Commission to substitute the name of Eyitayo Jegede with that of Ibrahim
as the PDP governorship candidate in Ondo State.
Bearing in mind that this is a time when
virtually all corruption allegations levelled against judicial officers
are taken as hard evidence, Justice Sankey, while engaging lawyers in
the open court on Tuesday, said, “Justice is rooted in confidence,” and
made it clear that the duty the panel was called to perform had become
impossible.
Justice Sankey said in the ruling that
although there was no evidence backing the allegations levelled by the
petitioner against her and the other members of the panel as well as the
President of the Court of Appeal, she and her colleagues considered it
more desirable to withdraw from the case.
She ruled, “Even though this petition
has fallen short of showing any likelihood of bias, nonetheless, we
consider it more desirable to recuse ourselves at this stage in respect
of all appeals and applications connected to the Ondo State governorship
election.
“All the files in this regard are now sent back to the Honourable President of the Court of Appeal for re-assignment.”
If there is any ongoing effort by the
judiciary to extricate itself from the web of allegations of corruption,
the vigour to successfully do so is deflated by the bruises it recently
inflicted on itself by issuing conflicting orders which complicated
societal problems rather than solve them.
For instance, since politicians
belonging to the rival factions of the Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu
Sheriff of the PDP turned the court to their battlefield, various courts
of coordinate jurisdictions have issued a number of orders with
majority of them conflicting, further plunging the society into more
murky waters of confusion.
The leadership of INEC captured this
mood in its response to two conflicting orders made on August 16 by the
Abuja and Port Harcourt divisions of the Federal High Court with respect
to the planned national convention of the PDP scheduled to hold the
following day.
The INEC leadership told The PUNCH on
the day the orders were made that it was confused about whether to
monitor or stay away from the national convention scheduled to hold the
following day.
At one end, Justice Okon Abang of the
Federal High Court in Abuja insisted that the PDP must stop the planned
national convention.
The judge gave a stern warning to the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahood Yakubu, not to monitor the convention.
The judge also ordered the
Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to enforce the court’s order
by preventing the convention from holding.
Justice Abang’s order was in direct
conflict with the order of Justice Ibrahim Watila of the Port Harcourt
Division of the Federal High Court, directing the IGP to go ahead to
monitor the convention.
Warning that the disobedience of court
orders could cause anarchy, Justice Watila, on his part, pointed out
that the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP remained the executive
authority in all matters concerning the party and should go ahead to
hold its planned convention.
But reacting to the development, the
Director, Publicity and Voters Education, INEC, Mr. Oluwole Osaze, told
The PUNCH that the commission was in a dilemma.
He said, “We are in a dilemma over which
order to obey for now. One order asks us to go ahead, another says we
should not. We are waiting to be served with the order of Justice Abang
before knowing what to do.”
In what appeared to be a show of its
preference for Justice Abang’s order, the police, on August 17, the day
the convention was to be held by the Makarfi faction, sealed off the
Sharks Stadium in Port Harcourt, preventing entry into the venue of the
event.
The rival groups of Sheriff and Makarfi
have both benefited from the confusion created by the conflicting court
orders, but the judiciary ends up turning itself into a laughing stock,
by making ineffective orders.
For example, Justice Ibrahim Buba of a
Federal High Court in Lagos on May 24, 2016 ordered the disbandment of
the Makarfi-led caretaker committee of the PDP constituted on May 21 to
take over the affairs of the party from its then acting chairman,
Sheriff.
The judge, in a ruling, declared that
the caretaker committee was constituted in violation of an order he made
on May 12, 2016 in a suit filed before him, praying for an order
preventing the conduct of election to fill the positions of the National
Chairman, National Secretary and National Auditor of the PDP.
Justice Buba said a judge had the duty
to enforce Section 287 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, which, he said,
stipulated that an order of any court created by the Constitution “shall
be enforced in any part of the federation by all authorities and
persons.”
“No court can make an order in vain,”
Justice Buba declared, stressing that he would not sit back and allow
his order to be violated without consequences.
But a member of the Makarfi group, Chief
Joseph Jero, also got a protective court order in a judgment delivered
by Justice Valentine Ashi of the High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory in Apo, Abuja on June 29, 2016.
In the suit filed by Jero against the
PDP, Justice Ashi technically ordered the removal of Sheriff as the
National Chairman of the party by ruling that the “purported amendment
of Article 47(6) of the PDP Constitution of 2012 at a Special National
Convention of the party held on 10th and 11th December, 2014 2014 is
unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect, for non-compliance with
the mandatory due process as provided in Article 66(2) and (3) of the
said Constitution.”
Another order made later on August 17,
2016 by Justice K.N. Ogbonnaya of the Kubwa Division of the High Court
of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, specifically stopped Sheriff
from further acting as the chairman of the party.
The order was made in suit,
FCT/HC/CV/39/16/ filed by another member of the Makarfi faction against
Sheriff, seeking to enforce the earlier judgment delivered by Justice
Ashi on June 29, 2016.
Justice Ogbonnaya declared that “the
judgment of the Honourable Justice Valentine Ashi delivered on June 29,
2016, in Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/1867/2016 is binding, valid and subsisting.
“That an order of court is hereby made
setting aside and nullifying the acts or conduct of the defendant
(Sheriff) as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party or
anything done by him in the name or on behalf of the party for being
unlawful, illegal, null, void and of no effect, whatsoever.”
Justice Ogbonnaya, in granting other
prayers sought by the plaintiff, also restrained Sheriff “from parading
himself as the National Chairman of the PDP, instructing any counsel for
or on behalf of the PDP, convening any meeting of the party, conducting
any congress/primaries for the purposes of nominating the party
candidate for any election or doing any other thing in the name of the
PDP until the valid, binding and subsisting judgment of Honourable
Justice Valentine Ashi delivered on June 29, 2016 in Suit No.
FCT/HC/CV/1867/2016 is set aside.”
The Makarfi group also got another
favourable judgment delivered by Justice A.M. Liman of the Port Hacourt
Division of the Federal High Court on July 4, 2016 in the suit
FHC/PH/CS/524/2016 filed by the PDP against Sheriff, Oladipo, INEC, the
Inspector-General of Police and the DSS.
Among the orders granted by Justice
Liman, in the said judgment, was one “restraining the 3rd defendant
(INEC) from according or continuing to accord any recognition to the 1st
and 2nd defendants (Sheriff and Oladipo) or any and/or all of the
national officers, members of both the National Executive Committee and
members of the National Working Committee of the plaintiff who were
removed from office by the national convention of the plaintiff (PDP)
held on May 21, 2016 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State as officers or
organs of the plaintiff.”
Earlier on May 30, 2016, Justice Baba
Yusuf of the FCT High Court in Maitama, also dismissed a suit,
FCT/HC/M/7098/16, filed by Sheriff and in which he joined 18 others
members of his faction in representative capacity, seeking to disband
the Makarfi-led caretaker committee.
In dismissing the suit, Justice Yusuf
held, “Now that it has become clear that the 1st plaintiff (Sheriff) did
not have the authority of the applicants to file the suit, I agree with
Mr. Njamanze (SAN) as supported by the senior counsel for the
defendants that this matter, as presently constituted, has become
incompetent and liable to be struck out.”
Despite all the orders that the Makarfi
group had obtained, Sheriff continues to act as the National Chairman of
the party parading a number of court orders affirming him to act in
that capacity.
When the crisis started in May, Justice
Muhammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos had ordered members of
the PDP not to take any action that could foist a fait accompli
situation, with respect to the convention of the PDP, on the court.
Justice Idris’ order came just as
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the same Lagos Division of the Federal High
Court, on the same day refused to vacate the order prohibiting the
conduct of election into offices of the National Chairman, National
Secretary and National Auditor at the PDP national convention.
The order by Justice Idris was sequel to
the confusion that arose as to who was the right lawyer to represent
the party in the proceedings.
The judge, in a ruling, held that
parties must not do anything or take any step or action capable of
voiding the proceedings of the court, pending when the issue of
appearance would be resolved.
Justice Abang on July 28, 2016 declared as illegal the Markarfi-led faction of the national leadership of the party.
The judge made the declaration in his
ruling which he delivered after entertaining arguments from two lawyers
separately briefed to represent the PDP by the Makarfi and the
Sheriff-led factions.
Relying on the order made by Justice
Buba of the Lagos Division on May 12, Justice Abang recognised Mr.
Olagoke Fakunle (SAN), who was briefed by the Sheriff faction, and
declared that Chief Ferdinand Orbih (SAN) could not have been validly
briefed by the Makarfi faction whose emergence as the chairman of the
party’s caretaker committee, according to the judge, violated an earlier
order made by Justice Buba.
Justice Abang faulted the decision of
the Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court to assume
jurisdiction on the case relating to the PDP convention because the case
on the same subject matter was assigned to him earlier before the case
before Justice Watila was filed by Senator Ben Obi.
With the battle between the Makarfi and
Sheriff camps taken to the state levels, the judiciary again embraced
the dispute over the PDP’s ticket for the governorship race in Ondo
State with a hug of conflicting orders.
On October 14, 2016, in the suit,
FHC/ABJ/CS/395, 2016, filed against INEC and the PDP by Poroye, Justice
Abang ordered that, “INEC, the 1st respondent/alleged contemnor, shall
accept and process for the purpose of its functions an activities in
organisation and conduct of the Ondo State governorship election only
nomination of Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, who emerged from the primary
election conducted by the 1st and 2nd judgment creditors/applicants
(Poroye and Ademola Genty for themselves and on behalf of the Ondo State
Executive Committee of the PDP) on August 29, 2016 as the candidate of
the PDP in the said Ondo State governorship election slated for November
2016.”
In contrast, on October 26, 2016,
Justice W.R. of the Akure Division of the Ondo State High Court, ruling
in an ex parte motion in suit, AK/176/2016, made an order of interim
injunction restraining INEC from “changing, replacing, removing,
substituting or in any manner tampering with the name of Eyitayo
Olayinka Jegede (SAN), as the governorship candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party in the Ondo State governorship election slated for
November 26, pending the determination of the motion on notice.”
Commenting on the logjam in the PDP, a
Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Wahab Shittu, opined that the PDP would never
find a solution to its internal crisis from the judiciary. He advised
the party to intensify its reconciliation efforts, suggesting use of
Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism.
Shittu said, “The intervention of the
court in the electoral process is the exception rather than the rule.
Political parties ought to be able to address their internal problems
without involving the court in the quest for internal democracy. What is
going on now is largely due to the collapse of internal democracy
within the PDP. The blame cannot be placed at the doorstep of the
judiciary because the judiciary has no way of determining who is popular
among the candidates except to act on the basis of the facts presented
before the court.
“The way out is for the PDP to go and
resolve their internal problems so that they can present a united front
in order to be able to confront other parties.
“There is no way the judiciary can
resolve this matter without further polarising the party because the
judiciary will decide in favour of one of the candidates and the other
faction, which loses out, will not be happy. So, the PDP should go and
intensify its reconciliation efforts and ensure that it presents a
united front. I am suggesting Alternative Dispute Resolution form of
reconciliation because any crisis within the PDP constitutes a danger to
democracy.”
Another Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu
Adegboruwa, blamed the problem in the PDP on the alleged presence of
agents of the ruling All Progressives Congress planted in the PDP fold
to destabilise the party.
Adegboruwa said, “In order not to be
seen to be directly involved in the PDP crisis, the ruling APC has
continued to use Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as a front to deploy the
judiciary to destabilise the PDP, in order to always create an easy ride
for the APC candidates during elections.
“The current crisis between Senator
Ahmed Markarfi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is the result of the grand
conspiracy of the APC. And this is part of what led to the sting
operation on the judiciary, as a way of creating mortal fear in the mind
of judges, to harass them into always doing the bidding of the APC.
“So, it is gradually gaining ground for
judges involved in cases where the government or indeed the APC is a
party, to assume self intimidation in favour of the APC.
“Notwithstanding the grand designs of
the APC, I believe that the judiciary should adopt some internal
mechanism for self cleansing, by which ‘overnight’ injunctions and
conflicting orders and judgments, in political cases, will be a taboo.
“The judiciary has been the arm
sustaining democracy and the rule of law, even under the military rule,
and it cannot afford now to be the source of destabilisation of our dear
nation.
“The CJN and the chief judges of the
high courts should roll out plans that will make it impossible for
judges to impose candidates on political parties and the people.”
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