![](https://i0.wp.com/cdn.punchng.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/25205023/OLAYEMI-ABIONA.jpg?ssl=1)
Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Affiliation, Osogbo department, Olayemi Abiona, talks to BOLA BAMIGBOLA on the controversy surrounding the decision of the Home recommending the suspension of the Chief Decide of the state
Your affiliation lately wrote a letter to the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, the place it took a place on the embattled Chief Decide of the state, Justice Adepele Ojo. What was the content material of the letter and what suggestions have you ever obtained from the governor?
My title is Olayemi Abiona. I’m a authorized practitioner and the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Affiliation, Osogbo department. We induced the letter to be written on Friday, November 17, 2023. Sadly, when our worker went to ship the letter to the governor’s workplace, we had been knowledgeable that those that had been to obtain it weren’t out there. The clerk needed to return the letter with a promise that we’d deliver it later. Once we took the letter again there, a employees member of the governor’s workplace once more declined to obtain it. I needed to communicate on the cellphone to one of many officers there who confirmed that it was an instruction given to them to not obtain any letter from the NBA or any authorized practitioner for now. That was how the stated officer on the governor’s workplace put it. Because the governor refused to permit us to precise our opinion by way of meaning, we determined to go to the folks immediately by utilizing the media. In all probability, the governor will be capable of hear us from the court docket of public opinion.
Have you ever obtained any response from the governor?
Formally, now we have not been in a position to obtain any response from the governor. Now we have seen that the Commissioner for Data and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, stated that the decision of the Home of Meeting had been handed to the Nationwide Judicial Council for additional motion. With that line of considering, I imagine the federal government is yielding to the voice of the folks and retracing its steps. It’s unofficial suggestions from the protest that got here after the unlucky incident.
Who did the particular person you spoke to on the governor’s workplace say instructed them to not obtain letters from legal professionals?
She didn’t point out any title. I attempted to ask for her title too, however she solely stated she was talking from the workplace of the governor and the instruction was that they need to not obtain letters from legal professionals or the NBA.
Divergent opinions have been expressed by legal professionals on the ‘step apart’ order of the Home to Justice Adepele Ojo, with some legal professionals saying the Home has the facility to analyze any public officer whose nomination was confirmed by the lawmakers, and a few others arguing that the NJC is the one physique saddled with such a accountability. What’s your tackle that?
I’ve stated it many occasions and I’ll proceed to say it once more. The Home lacks the facility to say a CJ ought to step apart in finishing up their oversight perform. They’ll examine any public officer within the efficiency of their oversight perform, however they can not punish any judicial officer. The Home lacks the facility to try this. They’ll examine, folks can write petitions to them, they usually might perform an investigation or inquiry about public petitions, however they can not say, ‘Now we have investigated and so and so ought to occur to this judicial officer’.”
No, they’ll’t do this. The most effective they’ll do is after investigation, their report could be despatched to the NJC with the preliminary petition of the complainant in opposition to the judicial officer, and the NJC will take a look at it. The structure in Paragraph 21, Third Schedule, provides solely the NJC the facility to advocate for appointment and removing or in any other case of any judicial officer.
The perpetrators (Osun Meeting lawmakers) are counting on Part 292 of the structure, which says the Home can have an tackle to take away the pinnacle of the judiciary and ship it to the governor. No, they should learn all provisions of the structure collectively; they’ll’t use one facet in isolation from the opposite. After the NJC has carried out its investigation and located the judicial officer responsible of the allegations in opposition to them, it makes a suggestion. As a result of it’s the head of the courts, not an bizarre judicial officer, it recommends to the governor for the removing of the officer. The governor will then take the suggestions to the Home of Meeting and the Home will move it and ship it again to the governor for approval. That won’t apply to every other judicial officer whom the NJC might simply advocate to the governor for outright removing. The chief decide is the pinnacle of the judiciary.
That’s the place the structure supplied for and there are a lot of instances. The case of a former CJ of Kwara State, who was eliminated by (Bukola) Saraki is among the instances. The CJ was eliminated with out the NJC’s approval and the case went to the Supreme Courtroom. The court docket stated a governor couldn’t take away a CJ regardless of the allegation, until it went by way of the NJC. That was the pronouncement of the Supreme Courtroom and it’s nonetheless legitimate until tomorrow; it has not been upturned by the court docket.
What’s the implication of the actions of the chief and legislative arms of presidency in Osun?
No one, besides the NJC, has powers to punish any judicial officer as a result of for those who enable the chief to do that, the implication is that it’s going to ship a nasty sign to serving judicial officers as a result of they know their job is not safe they usually have to bop to the tune of the chief and the legislature. That’s the implication and that’s what we’re standing in opposition to. That’s what the supply of the regulation says.
The Home of Meeting additionally stated it had not been served the method concerning the go well with filed by the chief decide earlier than the Nationwide Industrial Courtroom, Ibadan Division, and was not listed as a celebration within the matter. Do you suppose that’s sufficient floor to begin a probe of the CJ?
The method that I noticed doesn’t embrace the Home of Meeting, however there isn’t a means you’ll move that type of decision and it gained’t have an effect on the wage and different emolument of the CJ. All the identical, even the governor might not be conscious as a result of the order was obtained by way of an ex parte software. Ex parte means an software made with out the opposite social gathering. So, the governor might not be conscious. However, because the morning of November 16, the order has been in circulation (on the Web) and is open to the general public. Having been within the public area, the principal officers of the Home of Meeting would have been conscious of it. The federal government would have been conscious of it. We at all times say this in regulation: when a court docket order is made, it binds the entire world in respect of the subject material, until the order is put aside by that very same court docket or one other court docket of competent jurisdiction.
Some persons are saying that the structure has supplied an excessive amount of protect round judicial officers to guard them from investigation by the legislature, whereas petitions to the NJC in opposition to them might or might by no means be handled. Don’t you suppose that constitutional safety must be eliminated?
No, I don’t really feel it’s vital. I agree that on this a part of the world, many instances aren’t going as they’re alleged to go, however I don’t agree that the supply of going to the NJC to punish any judicial officer operates as a protect round judges, as a result of every day, aggrieved individuals ship petitions to the NJC for investigation and we see virtually on a periodical foundation how these petitions are handled and the way judicial officers are punished. Some can be suspended; some can be eliminated or dismissed. The process continues to be very a lot useful. The system could also be sluggish however it’s working. The NJC, by its process, has to take time and provides the events concerned a good listening to earlier than concluding the investigation. Folks might even see it as being sluggish, however it’s working. I’m not ruling out the truth that there could also be an affect somehow, particularly when it includes a judicial officer who can also be a member of the NJC.
Have you ever seen the allegations raised in opposition to the CJ?
The one ones I’ve seen are those raised by the Judiciary Workers Union of Nigeria concerning the difficulty of high-handedness, and the difficulty of changing a few of their allowances, which (they) are simply popping out to say. I’m simply listening to that on account of their picketing of courts. There may be nothing dangerous, if you realize you’ve real allegations in opposition to somebody, even for those who write to the NJC, you may take the particular person to the court docket of public opinion, and the process taken by the Home of Meeting was additionally good, besides the decision that the CJ ought to step apart.
What ought to they’ve completed at the moment?
They need to have simply handed the decision that they imagine there’s a prima facie case on the petition and handed a decision that the clerk of the Home ought to move it to the NJC for additional investigation and motion. So, how can the legislative arm of a state move a decision to the NJC they usually (the NJC) gained’t work on it? They need to not have taken a place. They need to have handed it to the NJC and adopted up on the petition as a result of the factor will nonetheless return to them by constitutional provision after the NJC completes its investigation. Their motion is like leaping the gun.
A few of the allegations in opposition to the CJ had been the declare that as a substitute of paying the proceeds from a case into the federal government coffers, the cash was paid into the coffers of the Excessive Courtroom and diverted thereafter, and {that a} marketing consultant was dropped at deal with the e-affidavit with out the approval of the state authorities. Do you suppose all these are politics?
I don’t need to say something about that as a result of I’m not certain. If I say I see any political undertone, I can be speculating and I don’t need to speculate. The CJ shouldn’t be a politician. She shouldn’t be alleged to be a politician. She is meant to be a judicial officer and by their oath, she is meant to be unbiased. She shouldn’t be alleged to have sympathy for any political social gathering. I don’t see why it must be a political challenge. A CJ will ordinarily work with as many governments as attainable, relying on the years they’ve in service. The current CJ labored with the administration of (a former governor,) Rauf Aregbesola, (his successor, Adegboyega) Oyetolaand she continues to be right here. Everyone knows that Oyetola was the Chief of Workers in Aregbesola’s authorities however thereafter, they parted methods which was a political matter between the 2 of them.
Most of the issues we’re elevating now began throughout Aregbesola’s time. So, Oyetola might have used that to probe the CJ, however nothing of such occurred. I believe those that are elevating it in all probability noticed this time as an excellent time to lift it or in all probability, that is the time the Home of Meeting needs to look into such allegations.
What’s the means out of this example?
So far as we’re involved, by the supply of the regulation, the ruling of the Nationwide Industrial Courtroom has restrained the governor, his brokers, and others from interfering with the workings of the CJ. Now we have additionally taken into cognisance the place of the state authorities. I’ve heard the Commissioner for Data, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, retract a few of their statements, particularly when he stated that the governor by no means authorized the decision of the Home of Meeting. He stated as a substitute of approving it, the governor solely stated the decision must be compiled and brought to the NJC. That signifies that Justice Adepele Ojo continues to be the CJ of Osun State. We should always now be ready on the NJC. Every little thing is now earlier than the NJC and a reliable physique to preside on.