Date Published: 02/21/11

The Chairman

National Judicial Council

Supreme Court Complex

Abuja.

My Lords

Petition against the desecration of Justice in the Sokoto Governorship Election Petition by the Chief Justice of Nigeria Hon. Justice Katsina Alu and other Justices of the Supreme Court

1, on behalf of the great people of Niger Delta, bring to your Lordships' notice the blatant rape and desecration of justice in the recent Sokoto Governorship election petition by the Chief Justice of Nigeria and five other Justices of the Supreme Court, persons who ought to be beacons of justice in Nigeria being at the very top of the Nigerian judiciary.

The Sokoto matter began as a pre-election case by Alhaji Dingyadi, the Democratic People Party (DPP) candidate challenging the qualification of Alhaji Wammako, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate to contest the re-run election ordered by the Court of Appeal since he was held by the Court of Appeal not to have been qualified to contest the nullified election. While the suit was pending, the election was conducted and Alhaji Wammako was declared winner of the election. Aggrieved, Alhaji Dingiyadi then instituted a petition at the Election Petition Tribunal challenging the outcome of the election. Both matters reached the appeal stage and there was a further appeal to the Supreme Court in respect of the pre-election case which Alhaji Dingyadi later sought to withdraw from Court.

Curiously however and against all legal sense of jurisdictional or judicial powers, the Chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), Honourable Justice Katsina Alu wrote a letter to the Court of Appeal Sokoto ordering it to refrain from delivering judgment in the election petition matter pending before it and relisted the motion for withdrawal of the appeal before the Supreme Court which it had earlier granted. This act of the CJN which is unprecedented in the annals of judicial history, not only in Nigeria but elsewhere in the world, is also a grave violation of Section 246(3) of the 1999 Constitution which emphatically provides that the Court of Appeal is the Apex Court in respect of election petitions apart from Presidential election petitions. Therefore, the CJN had no legal, constitutional or even moral right to arrest and truncate an impending judgment of an Apex Court in Election petition matters. His action in this regard was clear evidence of corrupt inducement by powerful forces determined to scuttle the impending judgment of the Court of Appeal Sokoto.

To further compound the desecration of justice in the Sokoto matter, a panel of the Supreme Court presided over by a Justice of the Supreme Court who is a willing tool of the CJN for the subversion of justice, proceeded to dismiss the election petition case pending at the Court of Appeal Sokoto on the grounds that it constituted an abuse of court process in the light of the pending appeal at the Supreme Court. This was a daylight rape of justice and the judiciary in Nigeria and is pungent in all its ramification. How can the Supreme Court dismiss a case that was not before it and that would never have come before it for adjudication in the light of clear constitutional provisions? How can a court exercise jurisdiction without judicial powers? Section 246(3) of the 1999 Constitution is clear on where resides judicial power in respect of Governorship election petitions. In an earlier case, the Supreme Court had on November 4, 2010 struck out the appeal brought by All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) 2007 Governorship candidate in Kaduna, Mohammed Sani Shabaan, against the then Governor, Arc. Namadi Sambo, for lack of jurisdiction. Justice Dahiru Musdapher justified the decision saying Section 246 (3) of the 1999 Constitution is clear and unambiguous as it deprives the Apex Court of jurisdiction and competence to deal with matters arising from Governorship elections.

For the same Apex Court to surreptitiously turn around two weeks later and unlawfully meddle and dismiss a Governorship petition pending before the Court of Appeal Sokoto smacks of pure fraud, imposition and is clearly evident of corrupt tendencies, In dismissing the case at the Court of Appeal Sokoto, the panel of the Supreme Court aborted and desecrated the altars of justice. Reacting to the incomprehensible decision of the Apex court, the Nigerian Bar Association in its official release stated that-

" The NBA remains absolute in its belief that all courts in the Nigerian Constitution have their constitutional limits. Great care must therefore be taken that superior courts, no matter Iwu' highly placed, work within the limits of their constitutional jurisdiction. To embrace, jurisdiction under very dubious and doubtful circumsiances and stultify the constitutional duties of other courts amount in simple terms to a judicial coup d'etat and grievous assault on the constitution itself.”

It was learnt from reliable and authoritative inside sources that the Chief Justice of Nigeria was influenced with Several Billions of Naira by powerful sources within government who were desperate to subvert the judgment in the Sokoto appeal case which they perceived would be unfavourable. The task that was assigned to the CJN was simple- to scuttle the appeal case in Sokoto and ensure judgment was never delivered in the case. The sum was distributed to the panel of justices that sat on the case at the Supreme Court in collaboration with the CJN. This explains why all efforts were put in by the CJN to sec that judgment was never delivered by the Court of Appeal Sokoto, first by arresting their judgment through an administrative fiat which had no legal, constitutional, moral or logical basis or justification and then through an incomprehensible dismissal of the case by a panel of the Supreme Court even where it was clear that the Court had no jurisdiction over the case, being a Governorship election petition.

To further buttress this clear evidence of corruption at the apex Court, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, the impeccable and indefatigable Honourable Justice Idris Kutigi (Rtd) in an interview was emphatic when he stated that a former Chief Justice of Nigeria was being used as a conduit by politicians to get bribes across to judicial officers at the Supreme Court and other judicial divisions. We have on sound authority that the said very corrupt former CJN is being used in this circumstance as a conduit to infiltrate the panel of justices of the Supreme Court that heard the Sokoto Appeal. This revelation of Hon. Justice Idris Kutigi must be taken very seriously as clear evidence of the level of corruption and decay within the Nigeria judiciary. More worrisome is the fact that this corruption has eaten deeply into the Apex court which ought to be the bastion of hope and justice in the country. If the head is rotten, what fate awaits the rest of the body? Little wonder there is a multiplicity of bewildering decisions of different courts in the country. This is simply because the Apex Court and the CJN is showing other judicial officers the way to go about their business with corrupt enrichment. It is this practice of corruption in the bench that made a former renowned Justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Kayode Esho in an interview in 2010 call for the establishment of a Judicial Performance Commission (}PC) to tackle the issue of corruption of judicial officers headlong. According to the learned jurist-

"What happens if the allegation of corruption is against the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)?’Who judges the judge' has always been the perennial question"

The learned jurist went on to pass a damming verdict on the current bench. He said-

"Corruption is not new to the bench. There have been disgraces at the Bench in years gone by and one would have hoped these disgraces should forever belong to the past. The scale is now larger, incredible and most disconcerting"

It has been noted that there have been strong calls for the setting up of a panel of experts to review the Court of Appeal's decisions in the Ekiti and Osun Governorship Election Petition. We are also aware that these calls are premised on the CJN's evil desire to give electoral victory to the PDP. Also, the justices of the Court of Appeal that decided the Osun Governorship were queried by the CJN because their judgment were unfavourable to the PDP whose bidding the CJN wants to protect. One wonders why the CJN has not deemed it fit to investigate the case of exchange of text messages between the Presiding judge of the electoral tribunal in the Osun state Governorship dispute and lead counsel to the then Governor of Osun State or other electoral mattes in which judgment was given in favour of the PDP candidate.

We also have it on sound authority that there are clandestine moves by the CJN and the AGF to extend the retirement age for judicial officers particular Supreme Court Justices to 75 years old. This is a deliberate ploy to extend the retirement age of the CJN and keep him in office for another 5 years to continue his evil act in favour of PDP. This move will no doubt subject the judiciary to further desecration by the CJN in person of Hon. Justice Katsina Alu who proven to have always abused his oath of office and corruptly enriched himself. We challenge to provide his statutory declaration of asset if he has nothing to hide. We therefore strongly and urgently call on the National Judicial Council to as part of its constitutional duty, cause an immediate and detailed investigation to be carried out into the affairs of the CJN and his various nefarious acts of corrupt enrichments, dubious administrative actions and overwhelming evidence of perversion of justice by the learned CJN in collaboration with other top ranking judicial officers. The NJC should get to the root of this issue and in the process sanitize the Nigerian judiciary. This is one of the basic purposes why the NJC was established by the constitution.

History beckons, the nation awaits; democracy and justice is on trial. The NJC should stand up and live up to its constitutional responsibility. History will never forgive those who stand aloof while evil men perpetrate and desecrate the very ideals on which our nation is founded and depends on for its survival.

COMRADE PRINCE COLLINS ESELEMO