Abuja based group, Society for Rule of Law in Nigeria (SRLN) has hailed the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Aloma Muktah for the Supreme Court handling of the appeal filed by former Governor of Ekiti State, Chief Segun Oni against his removal by the Ilorin Division of the Court of Appeal, which was headed by the suspended President of the appellate court, Justice Ayo Isa Salami.
The group, which said the Nigeria judiciary was being faced with another golden opportunity to redeem its image and bring back the glory of the days of Justices Kayode Esho and Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, added that; “it a clear judicial absurdity and rascality for a court to say that it cannot review its own judgment even in cases of established bias.
“What if in a case of murder, after an accused had already been convicted by a court that the law says its decision is final, the man said to have been killed surfaces to say that he was not dead and that he was actually hid somewhere to implicate the accused? Would the court says it cannot review its judgment because the law says its decision is final?”
Reacting to the yesterday’s Supreme Court hearing of the appeal, SRLN said in a statement issued today by its National Coordinator, Comrade Chima Ubeku that; “Judiciary is the bedrock of any society and where judiciary can no longer guarantee the rights of the people, anarchy takes charge.
“Therefore, the Supreme Court has the duty of protecting the sanctity of the judiciary by correcting judicial rascalities of the lower courts.”
Speaking further, SRLN said; “Because of the importance of the case in question, we created time to attend the sitting of yesterday and the meticulous manner the justices listened to the parties is commendable.
“What we saw was an Apex Court that is willing to do justice and we pray that God will give the seven justices on the panel the courage to act in such a manner that won’t make justices of our appelate court feel that the moment the law says the decision of their court is final, they can act even against the fundamental rights of Nigerians.
“This is because without prejudice to the position of the court, it is our humble view that denial of fair hearing and issue of bias, are enough ground to vitiate the decision of any court, including the Supreme Court and that has been done in many countries in the past.
“The celebrated case of former Chilean Head of State, General Augusto Pinochet in which Lord Browne-Wilkinson in his judgment of December 17, 1998 set aside the court’s decision of November 25, 1998 and ordered a re-hearing of the appeal before a differently constituted panel is one of the cases where a court had reviewed its own judgment and set it aside because of allegation of bias or its likelihood.
“Therefore, we urge the CJN to continue with her radical sanitisation of the judiciary and wish to remind her that sanitising the judiciary should not end with mere compulsory retirement of erring judges, it should involve giving redress to victims of judicial recklessness and prosecution of erring judges too.”