He accused the judiciary of harbouring “corrupt elements,” naming Ibrahim Auta, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, as a corrupt man.
The retired Judge, who was forced to retire in October 2013, after over 30 months suspension ordered by President Goodluck Jonathan, also criticized Nigerian lawyers, accusing some of them of contributing to the rot in the judiciary.
DailyPost recalls that following a disagreement between Mr. Salami and Aloysius Katsina-Alu, the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, over an election petition matter involving Sokoto State, the National Judicial Council, NJC, set up series of panels to investigate some of the complaints.
Part of the panel’s resolutions was that Salami tender an apology to Mr. Katsina-Alu, a recommendation he turned down.
According to him, the kind of characters in the country’s judiciary has further dampened the hope of the common man to justice.
“Another major point why the problem with the judiciary will remain unresolved or even compounded for a long time is that Nigerians do not naturally want the truth to be told. Whoever dares to tell the truth is marked for destruction,” he said.
“You members of the Bar often tell sordid stories or tales of certain high ranking serving or retired judicial officers who act as ‘arrangees’ or couriers of bribe. That is, such are engaged at a fee to reach out to judges to influence or ‘purchase’ justice in certain sensitive cases.
“I should like to let you know that in the course of my travails, the NJC set up the Auta Committee (Justice Auta is a completely junior judge or judicial officer to me) to make recommendation on the NJC Investigative Panel (Justice Umaru Abdullah’s Panel).
“This was meant to humiliate me. But God turned the humiliation to vindication for me, in that the Auta Committee adopted a laughable procedure by introducing a completely new dimension to the case without giving me any hearing at all.
“The issue of my breaking the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers by speaking to the Press was never raised, not to talk of being tried at the NJC Investigative Panel. The Auta Committee, however, flew above its mandate and said it took ‘judicial notice’ of the fact that I spoke to the Press and this formed part of the recommendations of his Committee which was supposed to act only on the NJC Investigative Panel’s findings.”
Explaining further, Salami said “During the period, I had a case pending at the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop the proceedings before the Committee. When told by a member of the Committee that I had a case challenging their sitting at the Federal High Court and that they should not proceed on the assignment, he said they had not been served and were not inclined to stop further proceedings on the matter.
“Obviously, the conclusion was already predetermined because it is very elementary that what was important was not service but notice of the process.”
The retired judge stated that the efforts of the current Chief Justice of Nigeria, Maryam Mukhtar, to rid the judiciary of corrupt elements are being frustrated by the crop of people calling the shots at the NJC.
“When the controversy surrounding my suspension was raging, a young member of the profession soliloquized that if Gani (Fawehinmi) were alive, he would have gone to court.
“I agree, but to which court would he have gone? An intimidated and frightened court? All it requires is a call to the head of the court and it is done.
“There are some who have the capacity to influence and intimidate the Courts and they do so with relish,” he declared.
On findings by the NBA, Salami said he wishes the body would have the will, ability and capacity to implement the recommendations of the Okpoko Committee that carried out an independent investigation into the Sokoto Case which led to his travails.
“Unfortunately, NBA which had a good report in its hands could not impose sanctions on members of your Bar that were indicted therein (probably because ‘prominent’ senior lawyers were involved). Again, we have to leave this to history, posterity and ultimately God, he said.
“Sometimes (and when it matters) some members of the Bar representing NBA on the NJC hardly stand up for the truth not to talk of speaking the truth.”
Daily Post
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