Issues To Headline Judiciary In 2019

For the judiciary, like the other arms of government, 2019 will
be eventful. ADE ADESOMOJU and OLADIMEJI RAMON
look at some of the issues that will dominate the judiciary in the
new year.

Pre-election cases:

The election year is here, and many are already anxious about
what the outcome of many pre-election cases pending before
different courts across the nation will be.

One of such cases is the disputed governorship ticket of the
Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State.

Although the Ibadan Division of the Court of Appeal on December
18, 2018, decided against Senator Buruji Kashamu as the
governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun
State, the end of the matter remains to be seen.

Before the judgment of the Ibadan Court of Appeal which
invalidated the Adebayo Dayo-led faction of the party in Ogun
State, there had been a yet-to-be resolved appeal over the legality
or otherwise of the faction pending before the Supreme Court.

On the other side of the divide is the national leadership of
the PDP which is backing Ladi Adebutu as the governorship candidate
of the party in the state.

New Chief Judge of the Federal High Court

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Adamu
Abdu-Karafati, who was in office in acting capacity for about nine
months from September 2017 to June 2018, when his appointment was
confirmed, is already on his way out.

Abdu-Kafarati, who was born in 1954, will bow out of office
later this year when he clocks the mandatory retirement age of
65.

Expectedly, the process for his replacement will begin months
ahead of his retirement.

This will culminate in the recommendation of a candidate, most
likely the next most senior judge in the court, by the National
Judicial Council to the President.

The President will in turn send the name of the candidate to the
Senate for confirmation.

If the candidate is confirmed by the Senate, the President then
appoints the candidate as the next Chief Judge of the Federal High
Court.

All of these are expected to take place within the year.

Lagos new Civil Procedure Rules

The newly-amended Lagos State High Court Civil Procedure Rules
2012 is expected to come into effect this month when the court
resumes from the Christmas and New Year holidays.

But lawyers, particularly members of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Ikeja Branch, had expressed their readiness to oppose
the amended Rules, which, among others, prescribe a cost of
N100,000 minimum against any lawyer who “unjustifiably scuttles a
court hearing,” and N50,000 cost against any lawyer, “who scuttles
the hearing of an interlocutory application.”

Days will tell, how the stand-off will be resolved between the
Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Opeyemi Oke, and the leadership
of the NBA.

NJC to conclude investigation into
EFCC’s petition against judges

Last year, following the judgment of the Lagos Division of the
Court of Appeal to the effect that a serving judge could not be
investigated or prosecuted unless after the judge has be
disciplined by the National Judicial Council, the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission had filed petitions against three
judges it was then prosecuting.

The three judges were Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia and Justice
Hyeldzira Nganjiwa, of the Lagos and Yenagoa Divisions of the
Federal High Court in Abuja, respectively, and Justice James
Agbadu-Fishim of the National Industrial Court.

The three judges, according to the charges instituted against
them, were accused of receiving gratification from lawyers in the
course of discharging their judicial functions.

On October 4, 2019, the NJC disclosed in a statement that it had
dismissed Justices Ofili-Ajumogobia and Agbadu-Fishim.

It was learnt that the disciplinary panel set up by the NJC to
look into the case against Nganjiwa has yet to conclude
hearing.

The outcome of the hearing is being awaited in the judicial
circle.

Badeh’s trial to be formally closed

No doubt, the murder of the immediate-past Chief of Defence
Staff, Alex Badeh, has brought an abrupt end to the charges of
money laundering instituted against him by the EFCC.

Badeh was gunned down along the Abuja-Keffi Road by suspected
assassins on December 18, 2018.

The prosecution had closed its case after calling 22 witnesses
to testify against him.

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja had in
November 2018 adjourned the trial till January 16, 2019 for him to
open his defence.

But as it stands, the prosecution is likely to request that the
case be struck out when it comes up on January 16.

What happens to Justice Ngwuta?

It is already over two years since a Justice of the Supreme
Court, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, was barred from sitting after the
raid by operatives of the Department of State Services on his house
and those of some other judges in October 2016.

He was subsequently charged with money laundering before the
Federal High Court in Abuja and with breaching the Code of Conduct
for Public Officers before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The cases were going on when the Lagos Division of the Court of
Appeal ruled that judges could not be investigated or prosecuted
when they had yet to be disciplined by NJC.

Following the Court of Appeal’s judgment, the Federal High Court
in Abuja struck out the charges against the apex court’s judge on
March 23, 2018 and the CCT followed suit on May 15, 2018.

In the aftermath of the Court of Appeal’s judgment, the EFCC did
not only appeal against the judgment, it also filed petitions
against three judges it was prosecuting.

However, while the Office of the Attorney General of the
Federation, which was prosecuting Ngwuta, had filed a Notice of
Appeal against the judgment of the Federal High Court that struck
out the charges against Justice Ngwuta, it did not file any
petition against him at the NJC.

The NJC has not made any public statement concerning Justice
Ngwuta, who has been receiving salary for upwards of two years
without sitting.

It is expected that his case will take a definite shape this
year.

Ladoja’s N4.7bn case

This year, the 11-year-old trial of a former governor of Oyo
State, Chief Rashidi Ladoja, for an alleged fraud of N4.7bn, will
come to an end. Last year, the case enjoyed accelerated hearing
before Justice Mohammed Idris. At the last hearing on November 27,
2018, the judge fixed January 18, 2019 for the prosecution and the
defence to adopt their final written addresses, after which a date
will be fixed for judgment.

Will Ladoja be vindicated and freed or will he, like his Plateau
and Taraba states counterparts, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame,
respectively, be found guilty and sent to jail? Whichever way the
pendulum swings, Ladoja’s case is one through which lens the
judiciary will be assessed this year.

Orji Kalu’s N7.65bn case

This year, the N7.65bn fraud trial of a former governor of Abia
State, Orji Kalu, which began in 2007, entered its 12th year in
court. It remains to be seen how the case, which is already at an
advanced stage, will fare this year.

In the first quarter of last year, amid a plethora of
objections, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission managed to
close its case, even though it was unable to field its star
witness, one Michael Udoh, a former cashier at the Abia State
Government House in Umuahia, who was said to have
“disappeared”.

In the trial, which is fraught with drama, the last was that the
trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, on November 12, 2018 revoked
the bail given to the ex-governor 12 years ago, following his
repeated absence from court as a result of his trips to Germany for
a surgery.

Justice Idris, in his ruling, ordered Kalu to submit himself to
the EFCC within 24 hours of his return to Nigeria, failing which he
should be arrested and detained by the EFCC.

It is uncertain when the case will resume this year for Kalu to
open his defence.

Buhari’s anti-graft war

In June 2016, the EFCC arraigned a former Chief of Air Staff,
Air Marshall Adesola Amosu (retd.), and others before the Federal
High Court in Lagos for an alleged fraud of N22.8bn.

The EFCC listed 40 witnesses that would testify against Amosu
and others. By June 2018 when the trial judge, Justice Mohammed
Idris, was elevated to the Court of Appeal, the EFCC was still on
its second witness.

In November, the defendants were re-arraigned before Justice
C.J. Aneke, who took over the case from the elevated Justice
Idris.

Hearing will be starting afresh in the case, two and a half
years after it started.

Amosu’s case captures the fate of most of the well over 20
high-profile corruption cases filed in courts across the country
pursuant to President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight by
anti-graft agencies.

Though the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Magu, said in
November that the anti-graft agency recovered N738.9bn proceeds of
crime between May 2015 and October, 2017, none of the notable
high-profile persons charged with corruption since 2015 have been
convicted in court.

A large chunk of the recovered money by the EFCC and kept in the
Central Bank of Nigeria cannot yet be spent, as the court cases
surrounding them have yet to be dispensed with.

Out of the legion of corruption cases initiated three and a half
years ago when the Buhari administration came on board, not more
than four have reached the judgment stage at the lower court.

In all the four cases, the defendants were discharged.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and the President of the Centre for
Socio-Legal Studies, Prof Yemi Akinseye-George, believes the Buhari
anti-corruption fight has largely succeeded, as the government had
created a scare in the land for those who have the propensity to
steal.

The SAN said under the Buhari administration, the anti-graft
agencies had enjoyed greater independence and freedom to operate,
as the President is not meddling in their activities.

“We can see the emergence of political will in this government
because the President did not prevent the anti-corruption agencies
from working. They had a commendable level of independence.
Although, it wasn’t perfect, there is a greater scare in the land
that if you steal, you will be punished. So, impunity has reduced,”
Akinseye-George said.

He noted that though lack of leadership hamstrung the
Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences
Commission, the appointment of Prof Bolaji Owasanoye as the
agency’s chairman, will give fillip to its anti-graft
activities.

Akinseye-George added that the loot recovered by the anti-graft
agencies, especially the EFCC, was evidence that government’s
anti-corruption fight had been fairly successful.

He commended the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Daudu
and FRN, where the apex court validated the Doctrine of Unexplained
Wealth, by holding that “anybody who is found in possession of
assets beyond his known means of income shall be made to
explain.”

“Then, the implementation of the ACJA has begun, the Federal
High Court has issued a Practice Direction, taking a cue from the
FCT High Court and I know that Lagos State is about to issue a new
Practice Direction. All of these are aimed at fast-tracking
corruption cases in court. So, I think the stage is being set,
because you will never get to a point when you’d say you’ve
finished the war against corruption, it is an unending war. What we
have seen is a bold start,” Akinseye-George said.

He, however, said more emphasis must be put on the management of
recovered assets to engender greater public trust.

He said, “There is a need for greater information in the public
as to the details of what has been recovered. And going forward, we
need an effective legal framework on the management of proceeds of
crime. There is a law called POCA, the Proceeds of Crime Act, which
has within its framework, the management structure, whereby money
recovered can be ploughed back and used for developmental projects.
But that law has not been passed. It is necessary to pass POCA and
I think government should prioritise it because it is going to
enhance asset recovery and reduce all these allegations with
respect to mismanagement of recovered proceeds of crime.”

The Legal Adviser of Amnesty International, Dr Kolawole
Olaniyan, however, regretted that “real progress is yet to be made
with respect to prosecution of grand corruption cases.”

“High-ranking corrupt officials rarely end in jail, as suspects
continue to exploit the flaws in the justice system and the
anti-corruption legal and institutional mechanisms, to the point
where individuals are profiting from their crimes,” Olaniyan
said.

He believes that the tendency of the Buhari government for
selective obedience to court orders had injured the anti-corruption
fight.

“Mr Buhari cannot on the one hand blame the judiciary for
‘failing to work’ with his government in the fight against
corruption while on the other hand, appearing to be deliberately
disobeying judgments by the same judiciary.

“Mr Buhari should embrace the rule of law as a logical extension
of his commitment to ‘kill corruption’. The rule of law can check
corruption and abuses of power. If the fight against corruption is
to succeed (and by extension, the rule of law is to be upheld), it
is vital that court orders are rigorously and predictably
enforced,” Olaniyan added.

The National President,Committee for the Defence of Human
Rights, Mr Malachy Ugwummadu, believes the Buhari anti-corruption
fight was frustrated by the friction between the executive and the
legislature in the last three and a half years.

He said, “Whereas Mr President and the Vice-President were
pulling in one direction, the leadership of the National Assembly,
Saraki and Dogara, were pulling in the opposite direction, as they
did not quite accept the strategy of fighting corruption by the
executive. That contradiction alone caused this government a
tremendous setback. The two arms of government need to collapse
their energy and build a consensus around the fight against
corruption.”

For government to achieve success in the anti-graft war,
Ugwummadu believes that, “The element of corruption in the
judiciary must be stamped out. There must be proper funding of the
judiciary; recruitment process of judges must not be left to the
whims of politicians and there must a proper reward and punishment
system for judges.”

Another lawyer, Mr Femi Aina, said, “In my general assessment, I
don’t think the government has performed creditably well in the
anti-corruption fight in the sense that they have only managed to
convict two politically-exposed persons, in the persons of Joshua
Dariye and Jolly Nyame. And it is very disturbing that government
has been able to bring most of the people who were charged to court
to justice and these people are still playing active roles in the
next elections.”

Culled from Punch