A former Appeal Court President, Justice Isa Ayo Salami (retd.), has said former Anambra state Governor Peter Obi should not have been allowed to contest the 2023 presidential election under the Labour Party (LP).
Justice Salami noted that the inadequacy and incompetence of some of the judges were responsible for some of their wrong verdicts.
The retired jurist spoke yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, during a visit and re-presentation of an award by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) to him.
The award was presented to Justice Salami by the Founder and Executive Director of the centre, Dapo Olorunyomi, and Motunrayo Alaka, at his Ilorin home.
Justice Salami said: “There are a few bad eggs amongst some judges. Strictly speaking, I will not say bad eggs. Some of them have a problem of learning. They don’t have good backgrounds to be judges. Imagine appointing a higher registrar as a judge. He has no experience. In the past, this would not have happened; maybe due to the population explosion, we have everybody reading law. Every university or college is trying to establish a law faculty. All this may be responsible, not because they are dishonest.
“Personally, they are inadequate. This might be responsible for their wrong judgments. At times, if you see the judgments of some of them, even the Supreme Court judgments, you will be astounded and wonder at what is happening.
“For instance, Peter Obi ought not to have been allowed to contest the 2023 presidential election. In this sense, by the time he lost the PDP primary, LP had submitted its list of members to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). And the Constitution says there cannot be an independent candidacy.
“How did he become the candidate of the LP if he did not belong to LP? The same thing happened to the governor of Kano State, Habba Yusuf, who has now defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). His name is not in the NNDP’s register, but they issued him a membership card, and the register is supposed to be the mother of the membership card.
“But the Supreme Court countenanced it, even though the tribunal and the Appeal Court frowned at it. That is the problem of competence. People get to the Supreme Court not because they are good but because there is a vacancy in their zones. They supersede people who are their seniors, whom they met at the Court of Appeal and who are more experienced than they are.
“I am a practical example. Some of them who came 10 years after I had got to the Court of Appeal, got recommended to the Supreme Court by me because my zone did not have a vacancy. That is the tragedy we have found ourselves in. We hope that with time, everything will be corrected.”
Justice Salami hailed the WSCIJ for honoring him.
“I am very happy to receive the award. I hope and pray that your organisation will flourish. I am very sure many people will be eager from time to time to be honoured by you. There is hardly any judge who will not appreciate this type of award coming to him. Even if he is a bad judge, not to talk of others who are very good and dedicated,” he said.
The retired jurist hinted that Prof. Wole Soyinka’s audacity and principled disposition influenced his position in the affairs of Nigeria.
He recalled how the late sage and former Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, influenced his decision to read law.
“In fact, Chief Awolowo was the one who influenced my decision to read law during his treasonable felony trial. And the government prevented his defence counsel from coming into the country from Britain.
“Chief Awolowo decided to take up his own personal defence. So, I thought if I go into politics and I find myself in the same hot pot, I should be able to defend myself,” the jurist added.
Source: The Nation News