By Jonathan Elendu
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” Martin Luther King Jr., This timeless assertion by the late American Civil Rights leader was contained in Barrister Yakubu Maikyou’s letter to Chief Wole Olanipekun, Chairman, Body of Benchers and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kayode Ariwoola, on allegations of professional misconduct against the learned silk and titan of the Bar.
To those who may have forgotten, let me quickly refresh their memories on the crux of the matter.
Ms Adekunbi Ogunde, a senior lawyer in Chief Olanipekun’s Chambers had sent an email to a multinational company soliciting their account.
In justifying the Chamber’s bona fides for such a level of business, Ms Ogunde boasted that her Principal, Olanipekun, is the chairman of the Body of Benchers and, in that position, has a tremendous influence on Judges at all levels and court officials.
The problem with Ms Ogunde’s email to the company is that the company already has a solicitor, Chief Odein Ajugomobia, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN. She was also soliciting a business which is unethical for lawyers to do in Nigeria.
However, Martin King Jr’s quote employed by the NBA chairman in his letter encapsulates the plight of APGA. This party, which is the second oldest party in Nigeria, has suffered the betrayal of silence and complicity of the high, mighty and powerful in the land. All these were orchestrated by forces led by Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and his godfather, Emeka Offor. They in turn employed Wole Olanipekun and other powerful lawyers to do what Ms Ogunde says they do best; influence the courts.
At the expense of boring the reader, let me quickly state what is widely known in the public space. APGA, on May 31st, 2019, had a convention in Owerri to elect national leadership for the party as Victor Oye’s tenure was ending. Edozie Njoku was elected as national chairman, and others were elected to the National Working Committee. Victor Oye was nowhere near Owerri as he held a convention in Awka on that same day, even with a court injunction that forbade him from conducting that convention.
Towards the time for Anambra governorship primaries, one Jude Okeke went to a Jigawa High Court to claim that Edozie Njoku had been suspended and should be upheld as acting chairman. The court upheld Edozie Njoku’s ‘suspension.’ One Garuba appealed to the Kano division of the Appeal Court.
Edozie Njoku applied to join but was refused a joinder because he came late. Victor Oye applied to join weeks after Edozie Njoku and was joined. The Appeal Court ruled that Njoku’s removal was an internal party matter and, therefore, not justiceable. They also ruled that Njoku ought to have been joined. (Judicial abracadabra?) Jude Okeke rushed to the Supreme Court. The panel headed by Justice Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili upheld the Appeal Court judgment that Edozie Njoku’s removal was non-justiceable.
However, Victor Oye’s name was now placed as the chairman, whose removal was not justiceable. After Edozie Njoku’s letter to the Odili panel for correction of their judgment of October 14th, 2021, was accepted and correction implemented, Victor Oye shouted forgery! This landed Edozie Njoku and Chukwuemeka Nwoga, the National Youth Leader, in jail for two days by the machinations of a compromised policeman and lawyer, CSP Ezekiel Rimasomte.
In a concert of improprieties, the Supreme Court Chief Registrar, Hajo Sarki Bello, the Director of Litigation, Abubakar Dikko and the INEC chairman, Prof Yakubu Mahmood, thwarted the spirit and substance of the Supreme Court correction of May 9th, 2022. While Sarki Bello wrote letters to INEC and the Police, effectively setting aside corrections of the Odili panel, Dikko certified the 2021 judgment and handed it to the police in 2022. The INEC chairman acted in accordance with their wishes, against a clear judgment of the Odili panel, by denying Edozie Njoku recognition as APGA national chairman.
These facts are well documented in the Nigerian media and even social media.
Letters and petitions were written to the Nigerian Bar Association, Civil Society Organisations and other well-meaning Nigerians by Edozie Njoku and APGA. Chief Wole Olanipekun’s involvement in this injustice is well documented.
The questions APGA officials have constantly asked is: On what basis is INEC relating with Victor Oye as chairman of APGA? How can Supreme Court staffers write letters and make public statements vitiating the judgment of a Supreme Court panel, and nothing happens, not even a comment from the NBA? How come Edozie Njoku and Chukwuemeka Nwoga were charged and remanded at the Suleija prison based on a revenge mission by a crooked policeman acting on the petition of a party who lost and the NBA kept quiet? The same CSP Rimasomte boasted that he would dock Justice Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili for replying to Edozie Njoku’s letter affirming that her panel replaced Oye’s name with Njoku’s name and gave reasons.
Then, and only then, did NBA wake up to the travesty of what has been going on at the Supreme Court and, indeed, Nigeria’s Judiciary for years. Is it because, as they claim, APGA is an Igbo party, and these are Igbo men fighting themselves? How could these senior lawyers, the NBA and indeed our so-called statesmen and women stay silent in the face of these huge injustices against a people? The shame may follow all of us to our graves.
Bar. Yakubu Maikyou’s letter to Chief Wole Olanipekun and the Chief Justice of Nigeria is long overdue. However, my people say that someone who was not present at a burial exhumes the corpse from the feet.
The NBA president is late, but he still has an opportunity to right the wrongs and the travesty of justice in our Judiciary. No Nigerian who knows what is going on in our Judiciary can have any iota of hope in the system. Justice in Nigeria is so rigged against the poor folks that instead of justice, we see ‘just us.’
The letter to Chief Wole Olanipekun exemplifies everything that is wrong with our Judiciary. You only need to look at the case of APGA to know I’m right. Go ahead, ask the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
