Compatriots, hearty congratulations on
Nigeria’s 54th independence anniversary and successful containment of
the Ebola Virus Disease. Today, as the President reads his independence
speech, so will the Independent National Electoral Commission be issuing
the Notice of Election in fulfilment of the provision of section 30 (1)
of Electoral Act 2010, as amended. With the umpire blowing whistle for
the formal commencement of electioneering towards the 2015 polls my
anxiety is heightened by
the dishonourable antecedents of Nigeria’s
political class. The unfolding scenario in Ekiti State, if it will be
the barometer for 2015 elections, then all well-meaning citizens and
well-wishers of Nigeria must be concerned.
Am I really surprised at last week’s
attacks on courts and judges in Ekiti State? No, I am not. It’s a war
foretold. The Ekiti warriors were just acting out a similar script has
had been played in Delta, Edo and Rivers states. How do I mean? In
January 22, 2014 article I wrote in this column titled, “Reversing
anarchy in the temple of justice,” I had chronicled previous attacks on
Nigerian courts and judicial officers. I said then that Nigerian
judiciary is undergoing three types of violence: physical, psychological
and structural.
In that piece I said:” It is fast
becoming a norm for judicial officers or their family members to be
assaulted in order to intimidate them from carrying out their lawful
duty. Sometime ago, some judges in Delta State came under severe
molestation by assailants. According to media reports, on August 7,
2012, a High Court judge, Marcel Okoh, was abducted and spent 10 days in
his abductors’ den. Also, on Tuesday, December 3, 2012, another judge
of the High Court, Marshal Mukoro, allegedly escaped death by a whisker
after his sports utility vehicle was riddled with bullets by unknown
assailants. There was another case of Justice Flora Azinge who
purportedly escaped being kidnapped and had to run away from the court
for months. Also, on Friday, May 10, 2013, unknown gunmen abducted the
wife, daughter, and driver of a Supreme Court Justice, Bode
Rhodes-Vivour. The victims were travelling to Edo State, ahead of the
Justice’s daughter’s wedding ceremony.”
“Rivers State has added to the list of
environment that is hostile to judiciary. Courts, which are temples of
justice, are being routinely vandalised and bombed in the crises rocking
the state. In 2013, a Magistrate’s Court in Okehi in the Etche Local
Government Area of the state was vandalised while files and other vital
documents were set ablaze by unidentified arsonists. On December 18,
2013, an explosion reportedly rocked the premises of the Ahoada High
Court under Justice Charles Wali. The same court on January 6, 2014 was
bombed by unknown attackers. The blast affected the secretariat of the
Nigerian Bar Association located within the court premises. Same day,
another High Court in Okehi in the Etche Local Government Areas was also
set ablaze. There were suspicions that the explosion and fire might not
be unconnected with the involvement of the two courts in handling
matters relating to the political crisis rocking the state.”
I then wrote about the psychological
violence being inflicted on judges by lawyers and their clients who
because they have lost cases in court will come out openly to disparage
the judge and accuse them of having been compromised. On structural
violence, I talked about the underfunding of the judiciary among the
three arms of government. I wrote in that piece that: “Statistics have
shown that, funding from the Federal Government has witnessed a steady
decline since 2010, from N95bn in that year to N85bn in 2011, then N75bn
in 2012 and dropped again in the 2013 budget to N67bn. I learnt the
allocation for the judiciary in the 2014 budget is N68bn, a paltry N1bn
more than last year’s.”
I must hasten to say that it is not only
the members of the bench, I mean the judges, that suffer violence.
Members of the bar also do. In April 2011, an Abuja based lawyer who
then was vying for the senatorial seat in the Federal Capital Territory,
Kayode Ajulo, was kidnapped and later released. In August 2013, human
rights lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, was
kidnapped in Edo State and released 20 days after paying a ransom of N40
million according to Thisday of 10 June, 2014.
Back to the latest assault on judiciary
in Ekiti State. News report has it that on Monday, 22 September Justice
Olusegun Ogunyemi, who is handling a case filed by the Ekiti-11 on the
eligibility of the Governor-elect, Ayo Fayose, to contest the last June
governorship election narrowly escaped being lynched by an irate mob who
attacked his court on that fateful day. Same week, precisely on
Thursday, 25 September, a sitting judge, Justice John Adeyeye, was
beaten up and his suit torn by political thugs. The record book of
the Chief Judge, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, was also torn into pieces by
the thugs who also disrupted proceedings at the state Election Petitions
Tribunal. The tension in the court forced the state’s chief judge to
order the immediate closure of all the state high courts. Aftermath of
the ensuing tension, former Ekiti State Chairman of the National Union
of Road Transport Workers, Omolafe Aderiye, was murdered on the night of
25 September. Reprisal by his supporters led to arson in which several
houses and vehicles were burnt. This made Governor Kayode Fayemi to
impose a dusk to dawn curfew on the state.
I couldn’t agree more with the position
of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project who in a
petition dated 29 September 2014 sent to the UN Special Rapporteur on
the independence of judges and lawyers, Ms. Gabriela Knaul, had observed
that, “Apart from violating the rights of the judges to personal
dignity and security, the attacks also constitute a threat to the
independence and impartiality of the judiciary and the entire justice
system. The attacks amount to improper interferences and pressures on
the judiciary, and can undermine the smooth function of justice,
public’s confidence in the rule of law, effective enjoyment of human
rights, and ultimately lead to people taking the law into their own
hands.”
Beyond the aforementioned implication as
enunciated by SERAP, the development in Ekiti has not only led to
further delay in the course of justice in the state as a whole
particularly for those seeking redress in other criminal and civil cases
that have nothing to do with politics, it has also impacted negatively
on the fragile peace reigning in the state since the June 21
governorship election with concomitant deleterious effects on the
socio-economic life of the state. The Ekiti scenario is a bad omen for
2015 elections and is a wakeup call for government at all levels to beef
up security around the courts and judicial officers. All those who are
connected with the unfolding anarchy in Ekiti need to be arrested and
successfully prosecuted. If reign of terror is allowed in the sacred
temple of justice, we should be rest assured that Hobbesian state of
nature where life is short, brutish and nasty will the sole alternative.
The choice is for government and the unruly political elite to make.
