Intrigues in Supreme Court over Justice Katsina-Alu’s exit date

[NewsCaster]

A ROUND of intrigues is brewing among members of the exalted bench over an alleged "bid" by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ignatius Iyorgher Katsina - Alu to stay beyond his tenure in office. At the heart of the matter is: When was Katsina-Alu born and so, when should he retire?

Whereas the Supreme Court of Nigeria's Staff Nominal Roll indicates that Katsina-Alu's was born on May 28, 1941, the Current List of Council Members and their Expiration Date has his retirement age as 28 August, 2011.

Meanwhile, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has admitted that there is corruption in the judiciary and set up a committee to probe all allegation of corruption on the bench.

In the country's constitution, all Supreme Court Justices retire at the mandatory age of seventy years, not a day beyond that age.          But the current Chief Justice Katsina-Alu is being alleged to insist on surpassing the 70 years benchmark, and this is generating a lot of disaffection amongst other senior judicial officers.      A copy of the Supreme Court of Nigeria's Staff Nominal Roll and Current List of Council Members and Their Expiration Date obtained by The Guardian clearly shows that Katsina-Alu has been slated to remain as CJN three months after he is supposed to have reached the mandatory 70 years retirement age for a Justice of the apex court.

Key members of the judiciary who drew the attention of The Guardian to what they described as an "aberration" said the CJN would be setting a precedent with unpleasant consequences if he goes beyond his exit date.

But another source in the Supreme Court said "there was a mistake in the computation of my lord's date of birth. He was born on August 28, 1940 and not May 28, 1940. He should therefore not be deprived of his lawful rights and entitlements simply because of a clerical error by the administrative department," he said.

But another said: "Equity helps only the vigilant not the indolent. How can the CJN sleep on a purported mistake over his age only to wake up a few months to retirement to seek to correct the said purported mistake. This is lame and unacceptable. The Chief Justice of the Federation knows more than anyone else that he cannot shift the goal post in the middle of a match. And in his own case, the match is almost over. He knows better," an NBA Chief lamented.

Indeed, a reference publication, 'ACHIEVERS WHO'S WHO IN NIGERIA' list Katsina-Alu, Aloysius Iyorgher as having been born on August 28, 1941 in Ushongo, present-day Benue State.

When The Guardian sought an official reaction on the issue from the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr Sunday Olorundahunsi, he claimed ignorance and asked for time to go through the records in order to ascertain the true position of the matter.                                                     

"My brother, you can see today is Sunday, so I am not at the office. By Monday (today) when I get to the office I will check on the Staff Nominal Roll and the List of Council Members and Their Expiration Date to see what you are talking about. But at the moment I am not in the office and I need to go through the documents to see whether or not what you said is the correct position of things", Olorundahunsi stated.

Already, the House of Representatives Committee on Justice has raised some questions for the National Judicial Commission (NJC) over allegations of indiscipline and graft in the judiciary.

The committee, which has already secured the mandate of the House leadership to probe the allegations, said it would begin sitting tomorrow.

The allegations of graft against judicial officers also continued at the weekend as aggrieved governorship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State and 34 others including Senator Lekan Balogun, have petitioned the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu alleging corruption against Mr. Johnson Shakarho, a judge of the Federal High Court.

The petitioners specifically accused Shakarho of collecting N5O million bribe from Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala to vacate his interim order against his candidacy.

The battle for the PDP governorship flag and Alao-Akala's candidacy has since shifted to the appellate court as the plaintiffs have appealed against the ruling of Shakarho.

The NBA at the weekend raised its alarm over graft in the judiciary by acknowledging that the face-off between Katsina-Alu and the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Isa Ayo Salami is a "tip of the iceberg of the problems confronting the judiciary."

At a press conference in the National Assembly at the weekend, the chairman of the committee, Henry Seriake-Dickson, announced that the questions which the NJC would have to provide answers to include what it had done about the allegations of corruption involving the President of the Appeal Court, Justice Isa Ayo Salami and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu.

Serike-Dickson declared: "An aspect of the enquiry has to do with the larger crisis in the judiciary; that is the face-off between the two heads of courts, which we understand has been amicably resolved which is commendable. But the fact remains that these allegations and counter-allegations are in the public domain and they have eroded the confidence of the people of Nigeria in our judiciary, which is critical to the survival of our country and our democracy.

"The committee is going to meet on Tuesday to work out the details and how to go about it. You know it is a sensitive national assignment. It is one being carried out with the aim of protecting the judiciary as an institution and not to add to the pervading loss of confidence. So, we are meeting to consider our approach in the assignment but what is sure is that we cannot afford not to do anything about it," he added.

According to the committee's chairman, "the allegations and the face-off judging from the way it started and the personalities involved and the judicial institution they represent cannot be ignored by this Honourable House of Representatives. We say this bearing in mind that a matter was even filed in court and an affidavit signed; statements and allegations made on oath; the contents of the affidavit concerned very senior two legal heads of the apex of our judicial system. We cannot afford not to look into the matter."

He also hinted that another serious question his committee had prepared for the NJC related to its role in the growing issuance of court orders even to the detriment of the image of the judiciary itself and Nigeria's democracy at large.

"We will equally like to know the steps the NJC is taking or has taken in respect of judges who had granted ex-parte orders on political disputes in circumstances that amount to the violation of their judicial oath and a breach of fair hearing.  So, we have such complaints from members of the public and our interaction in that respect will be to find out if the NJC is in receipt of those cases and what NJC has done or is doing or proposing to do," Seriake-Dickson said.

The committee, however, explained that the enquiry was not a bid to sit on appeal over the decisions of judges in any matter, pointing out that it was simply in exercise of its oversight function on the NJC whose decisions it noted were purely administrative and not judicial in nature.

The committee boss said: "We will carry out the enquiry without appearing to sit on appeal over the actions and decisions of these judges because we are not the court of appeal. But the NJC including the CJN who is the chairman, when they are sitting as members of the NJC, they are not sitting in a judicial capacity; the decisions that they take are administrative and therefore subject to parliamentary oversight. So, we do not have powers even to discipline judges, but we have powers to oversight the institution, the NJC, which has authority to discipline judges.  "I am saying this because it is a delicate issue. People may be tempted to think that we are sitting on appeal over judges. No, that is not the case here. We don't have powers to sit on appeal over the decisions of judges; we don't even have powers directly to discipline judges; parliament has no powers to discipline judges directly.     However, parliament has powers to oversight the NJC which whatever it does or whatever decision it takes is administrative in nature and not judicial," he explained.

In the three-page petition signed by Yekini Atoyebi on behalf of others and made available to reporters in Ibadan, the Oyo State governorship aspirants called for a thorough investigation into the alleged N50 million bribe and the circumstances leading to the vacation of the interim order.

Atoyebi added that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should be invited to check the judge's accounts as well as those of his friends and families.

The petitioner pointed out that the court adjourned the matter for Monday to enable them to argue the contempt charge "not knowing that the judge took this cause of action to put pressure on the governor to 'see him.'

"Immediately Justice Shakarho sat on Monday, February14, 2011 he showed that he had been induced as he openly said he would discharge the order even without any application. Our solicitor argued that having withdrawn the case against the third defendant who is the PDP chairman in the state, there was no longer any application to discharge the order before him and he should allow the conclusion of the contempt proceedings. The judge without hearing any counsel there and then discharged the orders and further, like someone acting a superior officer's script, went beyond the case before him by granting the following orders:

• "That the plaintiffs and the fourth defendant are free to approach the first defendant for filing of nomination to any elective post;

• "That the second defendant is granted power to field any of its party members as it deems fit;

"My Lord, firstly, fourth defendant is Governor of Oyo State; it is a constitutional position and cannot file any nomination to any elective post. It is a position that can only be competed for, adding the judge gave that order gratis."

In their appeal against the ruling, the three governorship aspirants: Alhaji Hazeem Gbolarumi, Wole Oyelese and Alhaji Yekeen Adeojo maintained that the lower court discharged his orders without any application from any of the parties on record and without hearing any parties, an action they described as against their interest.

They subsequently sought leave to apply for an order for stay of execution of the ruling as well as an order staying its execution.

The appellate court has fixed February 28 for hearing of the appeal.

The NBA said yesterday that after its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting which was concluded at the weekend in Awka, Anambra State capital,  that the problems confronting the judiciary were identified "as debilitating corruption eating into and corroding the entire judicial system, the face-off itself, which could not be debated on account of the issue being sub-judice in the sense that there are at the moment two suits pending in court on the subject matter and legal practitioners who promote corruption in a variety of ways in the system."

The NBA said that the deep-rooted corruption in the judiciary had directly or indirectly manifested in the face-off and called for mature handling.

It, however, advised that Nigerians must learn to trust institutions like the NBA when it speaks particularly when it proffers solutions to problems.

Its words: "The legal profession is a highly sensitive and specialised profession. All and sundry are not competent to resolve internal crisis that arise therein notwithstanding that the crisis may have the potential or capacity to negatively affect the good people of Nigeria.

"Consequently, we must learn to trust our institutions such as the NBA when it speaks as to the way ahead of this problem."

The association said it would go beyond mere palliatives and political grandstanding to propound long-lasting and comprehensive solutions to the crisis at hand.

The statement, which was issued to this effect at the end of the meeting, reads: "On the state of the nation, NEC took a critical look at the decay in the judiciary and mandated the leadership of the association to set up a high-powered committee to work with other stakeholders with a view to tackling the hydra-headed problem of corruption that has bedeviled that arm of government in recent times.

"Regarding the on-going crisis between the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of the Court of Appeal, NEC refrained from taking any position on the issue since it is sub-judice. It maintained, however, that, in order to restore the hope and confidence of the common man in the judiciary, stakeholders should wade into the crisis as a matter of urgency with a view to finding a lasting solution to the controversy and apportion blame where necessary after due investigation.

"NEC considered and approved the convocation of a Rule of Law summit by the NBA to hold on the 23rd day of March, 2011 to address rule of law issues including issues of abuse of human rights by security and law enforcement agencies.

Source: Intrigues in Supreme Court over Katsina-Alu's exit date