Salami unfairly treated by NJC, says Uwais

It was fantastic farewell to a fearless Jurist who
was “unfairly treated”.
Retiring Appeal Court President Justice Isa Ayo
Salami was all smiles as the encomiums came
down in torrents.
Former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice
Mohammed Uwais said the National Judicial
Council (NJC) – judiciary’s highest
administrative body – acted unfairly in the
manner it handled Justice Salami’s
suspension.
He regretted that a body peopled by eminent
and experienced minds could act in the manner
the NJC treated Justice Salami.
It was all in Abuja at the launch of a book titled:
“Isa Ayo Salami: Through life and justice”,
written in honour of Justice Salami.
The former CJN, who was the event’s
Chairman, argued that it was wrong for the NJC
to have involved President Goodluck Jonathan
in its decision to discipline Justice Salami.
Relying on the provisions of Section 153 (2) of
the Constitution, Justice Uwais restated his
earlier position that President Jonathan lacked
the powers to suspend any judge.
He argued that having retired on October 15,
Justice Salami’s suspension automatically
lapsed.
“Sometime in April 2011, I expressed my
opinion on the issue in answer to a question by
the media in Lagos.
“Let me now expatiate what informed my
answer that it is the NJC that is vested with the
power to suspend a judicial official (a judge
that is) for misconduct, as a disciplinary
measure, and not the President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
“It follows that Justice Isa Ayo Salami has
been unfairly treated by the NJC. It is
disturbing, to say the least that the NJC, whose
membership consists of eminent and
experienced judges and lawyers, should act in
the manner they treated Justice Salami.
Former Attorney General of the Federation
(AGF) Abdullahi Ibrahim (SAN) argued that
Justice Salami was unduly maligned. He said
all the allegations made against him were not
true.
Ibrahim, who said he had known Justice
Salami for long, added that he was incapable of
committing all the atrocities that his name was
wrongly associated with.
“We have known him from his youth in the
profession. He is a humble gentleman by any
standard of the word. He is an intelligent
human being, and above all, a man of
integrity.”
Former President of the Court of Appeal Justice
Mamman Nasir was delighted at the large
turnout of judges and lawyers at the event.
He said the development demonstrated a
united judiciary that is intact, despite attempts
to cause disaffection among its members.
Governor Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara State
warned of the negative consequences of the
growing culture of impunity, abuse of power
and injustice in the country.
“We should stand up for justice whenever
injustice is being meted out to anybody,” he
said.
The governor said it was unhelpful to the
growth of democracy if the people failed to
confront acts of injustice.
He said the people should not take for granted
what is happening in the country, else the
violent crises being experienced in other
countries could occur here.
He bought 250 copies at N55million – on
behalf of the 11 progressive governors.
The spacious venue was filled to capacity, with
dignitaries.
But the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice
Aloma Mukhtar was absent. She also did not
send a representative.
Former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu said history will be kind to Justice
Salami in spite of the deliberate plot to
humiliate the judge out of the bench by the
Peoples Democratic Party-controlled Federal
Government.
He also said it is regrettable that justice has
been placed on the auction block in the
country.
He said: “We live in an era where justice has
been placed on the auction block. Too often the
temple of justice has decayed into a chamber
deceit. One man fought to bring justice back
into the temple through singular acts of
courage. He stared injustice and the
misconduct of craven power in the face and did
not flinch. He stood his ground because it was
a firm and honest position, established on the
unbiased rule of law.
“Justice Salami represented the judiciary a true
democracy needs. We are yet to achieve this
judiciary simply because those in power do not
want it. They do not want judges who are
objective arbiters of the law. They want jurists
who cheer for them not jurist who cherish the
law. They want judges who believe power and
might are the law not judges who believe in the
power and might of the law.
“For being forthright and objective, Salami was
taken from his deserved position on the bench
by the ruling party. An innocent man was made
to suffer, pilloried for the sin of being good and
forthright. Those who forced him into retirement
saw him as an obstacle because he did not
play favourites.
“When it came to the law, he did not play at all.
He held the law in great esteem and protected it
as one should protect the cornerstone of a just
society.
“The story of Justice Salami is instructive.
Despite being exonerated by numerous panels
of men of integrity, the government refused to
re-instate him. Though kept at home, he was a
constant thorn in their side because he would
not abide their script. His compass was not the
demands of those in power . His compass was
the dictates of the law. In another setting, he
would have been proclaimed a great and noble
man. In Nigeria, he was punished.
“Salami’s account is the story of Nigeria.
Nigeria stands in the cross winds of history.
Unless we find more men with the gravity and
sobriety of Justice Salami in the judiciary we
shall be swept in the wrong direction by the
terrible gales of unbridled ambition and mean
power.”
The ex-governor clarified that Salami was
never a stooge of the defunct ACN.
He said: “ Instead of learning democratic
lessons from the judicial overturning of its
electoral violations, the ruling party has vowed
t overturn the impartiality of the judiciary.
Instead of desisting from practices deemed
improper, the PDP now employs those same
practices to wreck the operation of justice.
“Thus government wrongfully ended the career
of one of our illustrious jurists, Court of Appeal
President, Justice Isa Salami. What was his
crime? He refused to put his sense of justice on
sale. Because of this, they slandered and
libeled him. They rumoured he was in the
pockets of the ACN. This was a terrible lie
against a good man. Our party has no hold on
him.
“His verdicts were not for the ACN. They were
for justice. However, those in power could not
tolerate his impartiality. So partisan and
power-mad, they cannot see that this man
operates from principles different and more
exalted than the crude politics they play.
The book’s editor, Mrs Funmi Quadri, had, at
the inception of the event, informed all that the
CJN was being expected.
Also at the event were former Head of State
General Mohammed Buhari, The All
Progressives Congress (APC) interim Chairman,
Chief Bisi Akande, Governors Rauf Aregbesola
(Osun) and Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), former CJN
Idris Legbo Kutigi and Acting President of the
Court of Appeal Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa.
Others are former Speaker of the House of
Representatives Aminu Bello Masari, former
Edo State Governor John Oyegun, APC’s Interim
National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, former Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) Minister Nasir el-Rufai, former AGF Akin
Olujimi (SAN), Justice Salami’s wife, Mrs
Olayinka Salami, President of the National
Industrial Court Babatunde Adejumo, former
Communication Minister Cornelus Adebayo,
Justice Clara Ogunbiyi of the Supreme Court
and Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi, who
represented Justice Ibrahim Bukar, the Chief
Judge of the FCT High Court.
Alo present were Justices Mahmood
Mohammed of the Supreme Court, M. A Garuba
of the Court of Appeal, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN)
Mike Ozekhome (SAN) Emeka Ngige (SAN)
Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) and Rickey Tarfa
(SAN).
The event was organised by a seven-man
group, including Fagbemi, Tarfa, Ngige, John
Baiyeshea (SAN), Abeni Mohammed and Funmi
Quadri.
The book reviewer, Professor Ademola Popoola
of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said
the book, a 7769-page compilation of Justice
Salami’s unreported judgments, was not an
attempt to do the honouree’s biography.
He said any legal practitioner, who takes
intelligent interest in the nation’s judicial
system, will find the book interesting.
Describing Justice Salami as an individual, who
believes in due process, he recalled that the
former Court of Appeal President once rejected
an attempt to make him the Chief Judge of
Kwara State in 1984.
“He would have become the CJ of Kwara State
in 1984 without asking for it. He refused and
insisted that due process must be followed,”
Popoola said.
He urged Justice Salami to tell his own account
of the incident leading to his suspension,
stressing that “people will listen”.
Reading Justice Salami’s citation, Adeniyi
Akintola (SAN) noted that his suspension was
not the first in his life.
He recalled that Justice Salami was once
suspended in his final year at the Secondary
School, when as a School Prefect in Offa
Grammar School, Kwara State, he mobilised
students to protest against some decisions of
the school’s authority.
He described Justice Salami as a courageous
man, “who dared to run where others feared to
thread”.