9th March, 2011
After the initial prevarication, the National Judicial Council, NJC, has decided to investigate the petitions and allegations of corruption levelled against the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu and the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami.
The two leading judges have been at the centre of corruption allegations rocking the nation’s judiciary. And there have been strident calls from all quarters, even from within the judiciary, for the NJC to wade into the matter in order to save the judiciary the opprobrium the allegations had hauled at it.
Now with the NJC issuing queries to the dramatis personae ahead its fifth emergency meeting today and the need for them to send their reply to the queries and to appear before the council today, we expect that the issue will be thoroughly thrashed and the ghost laid to rest. Never in the history of the nation’s judiciary had there been such an uproar surrounding the allegations against the top echelons of the judiciary. While Salami had accused Katsina-Alu of asking him to pervert the course of justice in the determination of the 2007 Sokoto State governorship election appeal, there were petitions against Salami and other justices of the Court of Appeal that they allegedly engaged in unethical practices in the determination of governorship appeals in Ekiti and Osun states.
The allegations were levelled against Salami and other justices by former governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni and the Acting Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun State, Otunba Sunday Ojo Williams.
There had been several allegations of bribery and corruption against judges in the past that were swept under the carpet. A case in point was in July 2009 when TheNEWS magazine exposed the phone calls between the chairman of the First Osun State Election Petitions Tribunal, Justice Thomas Naron, and Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye, ex-Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s lawyer, while the petition was still pending. Though the scandal rocked the judiciary, the NJC refused to act and to date Naron and Kalejaiye are still made to seem untainted.
Nigerians are awaiting the outcome of the probe of Katsina-Alu and Salami. Whatever decision NJC comes up with, the judiciary will never be the same again on account of the scandal.
He who comes to equity must do so with clean hands. The judiciary must rid itself of the corrupt elements in its fold. That is the only way it could be taken seriously as a temple of justice and the last hope of the common people. If justice is for the highest bidder, then our nation is doomed.