NJC, Kogi State and Court of Appeal judgements – TheNigerialawyer

by Idowu Akinlotan

ON May 9, the Court of Appeal finally decided some of the cases
filed before it by former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter
Onnoghen. He was vindicated in three of the four interlocutory
appeals he filed.

Probably the most significant of the appeals was the one that
concerned the ex parte order the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT)
surreptitiously and maliciously granted the government based on
which the CJN was illegally suspended. In the opinion of the Court
of Appeal, the mode of securing the ex parte order raised some
questions. Justice, the court averred, must not be shrouded in
secrecy.

It is surprising then that the Court of Appeal merely dismissed
the appeal, insisting that no reliefs could be granted because
events had overtaken most of the reliefs the CJN sought. No
weighty, censorious statements came from the court concerning the
prosecution team which in clear view of the world perverted the
course of justice, nor was anything said about a government that
should know better but which chose to base its perpetration of
injustice on what is now obviously a conspiracy to sack the CJN. Is
this what justice is about in Nigeria? Is this not corruption on a
scale that beggars belief and shames the entire country? If the
Court of Appeal found the ex parte order flawed, after dithering
for months over the case, should it not have ordered a redress?
After all, “Ubis jus ubis remedium” (Where there is a wrong, there
must be a remedy).

When the former CJN was suspended and a new one appointed in
clear breach of the law, this column raised the fear that both the
courts and the National Judicial Council (NJC), were embarking on a
journey whose end no one could foresee. NJC, the column noted
particularly, had become compromised and a shadow of itself. As
predicted, a few weeks later, the august judicial body was called
upon to prove that its behaviour in the Justice Onnoghen matter was
nothing but an aberration. The mimic Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya
Bello, affecting to behave like the presidency, desired to sack the
state’s chief judge, Justice Nasir Ajanah, for no reason.

Mr Bello had taken umbrage at the Kogi State judiciary for
failing to embrace the state’s civil service biometric exercise and
pay-parade scheme. He then proceeded to seize the salaries of
judicial workers against the provisions of the constitution and
extant state laws regarding the funding of the third arm of
government. Dissatisfied that the judicial workers embarked on a
strike, and unable to successfully unseat Justice Ajanah whom he
saw as the face of the judicial revolt, Mr Bello petitioned the
NJC, alleging that the chief judge had been indicted in a state
audit report. It turned out that the report had been doctored.
Meanwhile, the NJC is reported to be in possession of the two
reports, one real and the other forged. But instead of acting on
the petition and proceeding to bring the forgers to justice, the
NJC empanelled some justices to visit Kogi State. No one knew
whether it was a fact-finding panel or a peacemaking panel.

In any case, this column rebuked the NJC and asked them to deal
with the petition and let justice be served rather than make peace.
Instead the NJC, just as it buried its head in the sand over the
Onnoghen matter, has also kept the Kogi governor’s spurious
petition in abeyance.

In fact, seeing that the NJC was supplicatory rather than
defending constitutionality and the independence of the judiciary,
and preferred to make plaintive remarks about rights and
obligations rather than upholding the dignity of judicial workers,
Mr Bello became remorselessly emboldened to harass the chief judge,
walk him out of a state judicial function, refuse to pay the
salaries of judicial workers, and continues to create a regime of
fear and terror in Kogi. All because the courts are timid and the
NJC is hemming and hawing.

It started with Justice Onnoghen, when the courts supinely
surrendered to the judicial corruption enacted by the presidency,
and has persisted with the NJC remaining conspiratorially muffled.
Now the train has lumbered into Kogi. Who and where is next in the
inglorious and provocative march to distort and corrupt an already
weakened judicial arm?

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Boko Haram: stakeholders want victims prioritized in
rehabilitation programmes

The key stakeholders working to Counter Violent Extremism in
Nigeria’s Northeast have said Rehabilitation and
Reintegration(R&R) Programmes should not focus on ex-Boko Haram
extremists, but must address the needs of both perpetrators and
victims of insurgency.

The stakeholders were drawn from the Office of the Vice
President, Nigeria police Force (NPF) , the Office of the National
Security Adviser (ONSA), the Institute of Peace and Conflict
Resolution (IPCR),  Local Government, Traditional and
Religious Council, CSOs, as well as women and youth leaders.

This was disclosed disclosed during a one day workshop on the
validation and public presentation of baseline findings if the
survey on mechanisms in rehabilitation and Reintegration vis a vis
legitimacy by the West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP)
and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in collaboration
(ICCT) in collaboration with the Netherlands Organisation for
Scientific Research in Abuja.

Speaking during the presentation, Ms. Isioma Nkemakolam, a
researcher at the WANEP said the stakeholders noted  that the
focus of R&R initiatives is solely on the perpetrator, while
the rights of victims and citizens are placed in competition with
the rights of former extremists.

Nkemakolam said the stakeholders called for a community-based,
victim-centered approach to R&R.

In Countering Violent Extremism ( CVE), She urged government
should ensure all ratified international and regional legal
instruments are incorporated in any R&R framework.

Nkemakolam also called on government to work in close
cooperation with NGOs and CSOs in the development and
implementation of national R&R frameworks.

Further, Nkemakolam explained that the stakeholders expressed
concern that unemployment poverty, apathy to the plight of the
people, and poor education have contributed to the rise of violent
extremism in Nigerias North East (NE) region.

She said, “Politicians in the North East region have leveraged
religion as a tool to recruit the unemployed, and that such
politicians have been complicit in the arming of Boko Haram.

To this end,  she streesed the need to empower the youth to
be economically independent. According to her, when youths are
gainfully employed, the chances of them being used as perpetrators
of violence will greatly reduce.

Nkemakolam also urged Stakeholders to take responsibility for
ensuring that perpetrators of violence are held accountable for
their actions.

‘This should be done through the strengthening of judicial and
legal processes,” she said.

By PRNigeria