The Justice For All Nations (JFAN), a United States of America-based non-governmental organisation, has warned the National Judicial Council (NJC) Probe Panel investigating allegations of unethical conduct against the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, and president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, against any form of cover-up.
Speaking with our correspondent during an exclusive interview in Washington DC yesterday, JFAN coordinator, Dr. Dada Popoola, said the group had been following the activities of the probe panel and could not wait to see the guilty party among the justices sanctioned so as to serve as deterrent to others and bring sanity to the nation’s judicial system.
“The survival of democracy in any society depends on the credibility and viability of its judiciary; hence, Nigeria’s judiciary must be saved from the present credibility problem,” he said.
Dr. Popoola, who lamented the rot in Nigeria, especially the judiciary, added that “in a saner clime, no judge that is worth his name would still be adjudicating over cases when he is being investigated for unethical behaviours.”
He gave an example with the recent conviction of a British Juror, Joanne Fraill, who was jailed for eight months for exchanging Facebook messages with a defendant who had already been acquitted. “In a Nigeria where judicial officers that are being probed are still sitting in judgment over cases, can that day ever come when we will have men and women of honour like Joanne Fraill, who would say: ‘I am guilty, please temper justice with mercy.’”
He said: “The Justice For All Nations is ashamed of most of the things that our people, especially those who call themselves our leaders, do in Nigeria. Look at the Appeal Court president, Justice Isa Ayo-Salami, who is on trial for his roles in judgments involving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), presiding over a presidential election petition, involving the same PDP”
“If he (Salami) can sit comfortably as the chairman of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, how then can anyone expect him to see anything wrong in having telephone interaction with parties to matters before him?
“More worrisome is the fact that unlike Salami’s alleged telephone interactions, which took place while the cases were still on, the Facebook conversations between the UK juror and the accused took place when the accused had already been acquitted.”
“For instance, from information available to us, instead of denying having telephone interactions with parties to the cases as alleged, Justice Salami is simply saying that those who accused him of having unholy telephone interaction with parties to cases before him ought to have provided details of what was discussed.”
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