By MUHAMMAD BASHIR
The war of attrition between the Kogi State executive arm, led
by Governor Yahaya Bello, and the judicial arm, under the
supervision of Chief Judge of the state, Justice Nasir Ajanah, is
in the public glare. But MUHAMMAD BASHIR in this analysis gives an
insight into the possible reasons for the face-off and likely
outcome.
There was a very strong affinity between Kogi State Governor,
Yahaya Bello and his kinsman, the Chief Judge of the state, Justice
Nasir Ajanah in the early days of the Bello’s administration.
Justice Ajanah is said to be a very diligent professional any time
when it comes to judicial matters, irrespective of interests.
Coincidentally, many people failed to understand his neutral
judicial disposition, believing in the existence of a veneer of one
who always takes sides when an issue has to do with his kinsmen
(the Ebiras) in the Central Senatorial District of Kogi State.
It would be recalled that in 2012, the Supreme Court had sacked
five sitting governors, including Ibrahim Idris, whom the apex
court ruled cannot extend their tenure beyond the eight years
provided for by the constitution.
The five governors, Murtala Nyako, (Adamawa); Timipreye Silva,
(Bayelsa), Magatakarda Wamaka, (Sokoto); Ibrahim Idris, (Kogi and
Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers State, had approached the court with an
argument that their tenure was interrupted and therefore had to
make up the period outside office. The Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), unlawfully excluded late Prince
Abubakar Audu of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), from
the 2007 gubernatorial election.
Of all the five governors, only Kogi State Governor (former),
Ibrahim Idris was directly affected by the judgment since his
tenure had already expired, while others were asked to conduct
election before their tenure came to a close
However, the court eventually struck out the matter as unlawful
exclusion from the 2007 ballot, filed by the late Prince Audu. A
rerun election had to be conducted six months after and former
Governor Ibrahim Idris, having taken an oath as governor-elect for
the second term, had to vacate his seat giving room for the then
Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Clarence Olafemi,
who was sworn in as acting governor by Justice Nasir Ajanah.
The situation irked Idris, whose tenure ended in 2011, to
approach the court for interpretation on whether he should continue
in office to make up the months he had been out of as governor,
even when an election was conducted and there was a governor-elect
from his party PDP.
There was a gubernatorial election on November 23 2011 that
produced Idris Wada as governor in waiting. However, the Supreme
Court decision created a vacuum in the state, which led to a legal
confusion on who was to take over as governor. There were divergent
opinions and one was that the governor-elect, Idris Wada be sworn
in immediately since he was already governor in waiting, while
another school of thought argued that the Speaker, Abdullahi Bello
should take over the Lugard House as acting governor.
At that point, as the Chief Judge, Justice Ajanah was said to
have been confused on who to swear in. Idris was said to have
insisted that his predecessor, Idris Wada (his kinsman) from Kogi
East be sworn in, since he was the governor-elect. However, Justice
Ajanah went ahead to swear in Abdullahi Bello (his kinsman) from
Kogi Central, alluding the fact that the Supreme Court ruled that
another gubernatorial election be conducted.
Ajanah administered the oath of office on Abdullahi Bello, at
the state high court, while the then President of the Customary
Court of Appeal, Justice Ibrahim Atadoga from Kogi East, swore in
his kinsman Idris Wada the same day, hence two governors emerged in
Kogi State.
After the demise of the APC governorship candidate, Prince
Abubakar Audu during the 2015 gubernatorial election, Kogi State
fell into another conundrum when Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, his
running mate approached the court that he should be sworn in as
governor since he co-owned the party’s governorship ticket with his
late boss. But the Supreme Court declared that the party, All
Progressives Congress owned the votes and the ticket and therefore
decides who should inherit the votes.
Hence, Governor Yahaya Bello, who came second in the APC
governorship primaries, was sworn in as governor by Justice Ajanah,
who, besides executing the Supreme Court decision happened to have
a blood relationship with the governor.
After this, the relationship between the duo became stronger,
since he swore in his brother in against all odds. Hence, the
governor extended concession to the judiciary under Justice Ajanah
by exempting staff of the state judiciary from the screening
exercise for the state civil servants since February 2016.
Workers in the state judiciary at that period had been receiving
their salaries as and when due, when other state workers were going
through a gruesome screening exercise without pay. This was going
on, until the relationship between the duo became sour, when the
governor was alleged to have lobbied the state judiciary to send
his arch-political enemy, Senator Dino Melaye to prison.
But the Chief Judge, who is known to be firm in administering
judgment granted bail to Senator Melaye on health grounds, saying
that a person on a sick bed cannot stand trial, “that is why it is
called standing trial,” Ajanah ruled.
By granting Senator Melaye bail, Justice Ajanah was said to have
betrayed the governor’s ambition to send his political enemy to
prison, and that could have led to the war of Ebira brothers. But
an aide of the governor said the allegation of complicity against
Melaye is in the realm of conjecture.
The governor in his quest to fire back his missile, stopped the
salaries of judiciary workers, running into 10 months as it stands,
directing that screening through table payment be carried out in
the judiciary too. The State Chairman of the Judiciary Staff Union
of Nigeria (JUSUN), Comrade Waniko, while leading a protest
lamented that his union members were last paid their legitimate
salaries in June 2018.
However, the judiciary workers, following the intervention of
the National Judicial Council (NJC), will have to subject
themselves to the governor’s directive by going through table
payment.
The second missile which is facing legal contention is the
removal of Justice Ajanah as Chief Judge, through the State House
of Assembly, which is allegedly serving the interest of the
executive arm.
As expected, the State Assembly was said to have heeded the
executives call and recommended the outright sack of the state
Chief judge for gross misconduct. Despite several outcries, the
assembly went ahead to empower Governor Yahaya Bello through
recommendation, to remove Justice Ajanah for alleged gross
misconduct.
The recommendation was through the adoption of the report of the
House Committee on Public Account which indicted the Kogi State
High Court for financial breaches. The committee report also
recommended that a punitive measures on indicted be carried out, to
avoid reoccurrence.
The Deputy Majority Leader, Ahmed Mohammed, who is also the
chairman House Committee on Public Accounts, alleged that the
judiciary arm was reported to have expended its budget above the
approved limits provided in some subheads as contained in the 2016
Appropriation Law to the sum of N7, 574, 850.00 without the
approval of virement application.
The Committee chairman equally stated that the State
Auditor-General reported that there was a non-deduction of
withholding from a contract sum of N 2,000,000.00 paid to AB
Enterprises which should have generated N100, 000.000 to the state
government in the year under review contrary to the provisions of
Chapter 2, Regulation 234 of the extant Financial Regulations.
“It was also reported by the State Auditor-General that Kogi
State High Court made huge cash withdrawal to the tune of N
137,607,334.11. The cash was withdrawn from the High Court’s bank
account in the year under review.
“This transaction breached the provisions of Chapter 6,
Regulation 632 which stipulates that ‘the use of cash for payment
is hereby prohibited except as provided in regulation 631,’” the
committee chairman added.
Also in the recommendation, the Chief Registrar of the State
High Court should be referred to the Kogi State Judicial Service
Commission for disciplinary actions for gross misconduct.
But in a stiff reaction, the Kogi State judiciary described the
efforts of the executive to remove Justice Nasir Ajanah from office
as dangerous and ill-advised. In a statement signed by its Senior
Information Officer, Saqeeb Saeed, it argued that the matter is
already before the National Judicial Council (NJC), and there was a
subsisting court order restraining Governor Bello from removing the
Chief Judge.
The statement, therefore, advised Governor Bello not to do
anything that will plunge the state into an unnecessary
constitutional crisis.
“Events in the last few days have made it necessary for the Kogi
State Judiciary to issue this press statement. The Kogi State
Judiciary is aware of clandestine moves by His Excellency, the
Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to use the Speaker of
the Kogi State House of Assembly to illegally remove the Chief
Judge of the State, Hon. Justice Nasiru Ajanah (CON), from office
over some trumped up allegations.
“This dangerous and ill-advised move is coming from the Executive
in spite of the fact that the matter is now before the National
Judicial Council (NJC) and there is a subsisting court order
restraining the Governor from doing so.
“The governor is advised not to do anything that will plunge the
state into an unnecessary constitutional crisis. Rather he should
obey the rule of law and the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria which he swore to uphold,” the statement read.
The governor had, however, detached himself from the impasse,
saying that he had no hand in the removal of the Chief Judge. But
the governor’s second missile, eventually met a strong wall, as a
State High Court sitting in Koton Karfe, dismissed the State
Assembly recommendations for the Chief Judge to be removed.
The Kogi High Court, presided by Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye,
set aside and nullified the April 2 resolution of the State House
of Assembly calling for removal of the State Chief Judge, Justice
Nasir Ajanah, for gross misconduct.
The court also set aside the resolution of the House in the
recommending Alhaji Yahaya Adamu, Chief Registrar of the state High
Court, to the state Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for
disciplinary action for gross misconduct.
Justice Ajileye, in his ruling on motion number HC/KK02M/201 in
the suit number HC/KK/11CV/2018 brought by the Chief Judge, Ajanah
and Chief Registrar of the State High Court, Alhaji Yahaya Adamu,
said he had come to the “irresistible conclusion” that the
resolution of the House arising from its sitting of April 2,
recommending removal or stepping aside of the Chief Judge for gross
misconduct must not be allowed to stand.
He said that the resolution, having been reached in “clear
violation of the orders of this court, it is, accordingly hereby
set aside and declared a nullity.”
The judge further set aside and declared a nullity in the same
vein, the recommendation of the Chief Registrar, Adamu, to the
Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for disciplinary action over
alleged gross misconduct. He said that the Kogi State House of
Assembly is subject to the rule of law and it is required to obey
and not break the law.
“With the positive orders of this court made on December 13,
2018 and reinforced on December 18, 2018, Kogi State House of
Assembly ought not to have done anything to give the impression
that it was trying to preempt the decision of this court.
“It is tragic that the respondents whose primary responsibility
is to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Kogi
State would be the same institution to be associated with violation
of court orders.”
The jurist continued that it was his considered view that the
action of the House in sitting on the matter and issuing a
resolution for effect was “a blatant and an impudent act which
ought not to be tolerated or encouraged in a democratic
setting.
“It was an audacious and arbitrary display of naked power, an
act that is contrary to all constitutional and democratic tenets,”
the jurist added.
While that subsists, a civil society group –the Federation of
Lawyers in Active Democracy (FLAD) recently accused Governor Bello
of ordering the severance of water and electricity supply to the
official residence Justice Nasir Ajana as part of the pressure to
force him out of office. The governor’s action, according to the
group, is aimed at intimidating and overawing Ajana because he is
not in the good books of the state government.
Reacting to recent resolution of the State House of Assembly
demanding the removal of the Chief Judge from office, FLAD
President Arome Husseini said the motion defied logic.
The statement dismissed as “null and void and of no effect
whatsoever” what it described as yet another instance of Governor
Bello’s intolerance of democratic institutions, the separation of
power and the checks and balances guaranteed by the
constitution.
The group said the 1999 Constitution as amended Section 271 ( 1)
292 (1) (ii) (a) and the third Schedule paragraph 21 part 1 of the
constitution which provide for the removal of a Chief Judge of a
state were totally ignored by the House.
It suspected that the Chief Judge’s travails may have begun on
the day he resisted the governor’s alleged interference in a
criminal case involving a ‘controversial federal legislator’ who
was granted bail.
It said: “A Speaker that was illegally installed was equally
forced to resign within one year after he complained during public
sitting that Governor Bello was harassing and intimidating him!
“In both cases, utilities like water, electricity and
communications were severed from the official residences of these
Speakers.”
Also, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cautioned members
of the Kogi State House of Assembly against allegedly allowing
Governor Bello to push them to remove Justice Ajana.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, who
is an indigene of the state said: “The recommendation of the Kogi
State House of Assembly for the removal of the state Chief Judge is
therefore a misdirected shadowboxing, which not only exposes the
state legislature to public ridicule but also reinforces
impressions and allegations in the public space that it has been
compromised to execute ignoble schemes of the state executive.”
But the Director General Media and Publicity to the governor,
Kinsley Fanwo had said there is no personal battle/problem between
Bello and Ajani, contrary to insinuations, alleging Ajanah rift
between the Executive and the Judiciary does not exist in fact but
a contrivance of the Chief Judge and the Chief Registrar.
“Most Judges in Kogi State can attest to the deep respect and
atmosphere of conviviality which the Executive Governor of Kogi
State has created for the discharge of their judicial duties. The
Chief Judge and the Chief Registrar do not want to be accountable
to any other organ of Government contrary to the principles of
checks and balances,” he said.
Fanwo stressed that the Executive is only insisting on the table
payment exercise for payment of salaries of only a few months to
judicial staff while other months are paid to the heads of Courts
for disbursement to workers via their accounts.
“The Chief Judge and the Chief Registrar, however, constituted
themselves into ‘the judiciary’ in Kogi State and unilaterally
decided that ‘the judiciary’ would not participate in a state
government and labour approved exercise. One begins to wonder how
the payment of judiciary staff via cheques (a purely administrative
matter) coupled with biometric capturing of state judicial workers
for record and planning purposes impinges upon the independence of
the judiciary or separation of powers,” Fanwo said.
He, therefore, insisted that the administration of Alhaji Bello
has not only steered clear of the Judiciary in the matters of its
independence but has bent over backwards to promote same.
Though the governor’s aides have dissociated him from the
travails of the Chief Judge, but with the seeming collapse of the
second missile, observers wonder whether a third one is in the
offing, especially now that he has his plate full of issues,
including the struggle to get his party’s automatic ticket to run
for second term, come November second this year.
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