“WHAT if in a case of murder, after an accused had already been convicted by a court that the law says its decision is final, the man said to have been killed surfaces to say that he was not dead, and that he actually hid somewhere to implicate the accused? Would the court say it cannot review its judgment because the law says its decision is final?”
That was the hypothetical case presented by an Abuja-based group known as the Society for the Rule of Law in Nigeria, otherwise known by its acronym SRLN, in the case concerning the Mr. Segun Oni, who was removed from office in 2010 following a suit by his opponent at the Court of Appeal in Ilorin.
The then-president of the Court of Appeal was Justice Ayo Isa Salami.
Mr. Segun Oni is currently fighting to have the judgment delivered by Justice Salami, which removed him from office, voided. He is citing what he calls a case of bias in the process that replaced him with the incumbent governor in Ekiti State, Mr. Kayode Fayemi.
The SRLN said on Tuesday that it was pleased with the ongoing review process at the Supreme Court, under the leadership of the current chief justice of Nigeria, Ms. Mariam Aloma Muktah.
According to the group, the Nigerian judiciary is “faced with another golden opportunity to redeem its image and bring back the glory of the days of Justices Kayode Esho and Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.”
“It is a clear judicial absurdity and rascality for a court to say that it cannot review its own judgment even in cases of established bias,” the group stated on Tuesday.
In a statement signed by the leader of the group, Mr. Chime Ubekwu, the SRLN described the judiciary as foundational to the stability of the society, ensuring a regime of law, order and justice.
“Judiciary is the bedrock of any society,” the statement read, adding that “where judiciary can no longer guarantee the rights of the people, anarchy takes charge.”
“Therefore, the Supreme Court has the duty of protecting the sanctity of the judiciary by correcting judicial rascalities of the lower courts.”
Speaking further, SRLN said; “Because of the importance of the case in question, we created time to attend the sitting of yesterday and the meticulous manner the justices listened to the parties is commendable.
“What we saw was an Apex Court that is willing to do justice and we pray that God will give the seven justices on the panel the courage to act in such a manner that won’t make justices of our appelate court feel that the moment the law says the decision of their court is final, they can act even against the fundamental rights of Nigerians.
“This is because without prejudice to the position of the court, it is our humble view that denial of fair hearing and issue of bias, are enough ground to vitiate the decision of any court, including the Supreme Court and that has been done in many countries in the past.
“The celebrated case of former Chilean Head of State, General Augusto Pinochet in which Lord Browne-Wilkinson in his judgment of December 17, 1998 set aside the court’s decision of November 25, 1998 and ordered a re-hearing of the appeal before a differently constituted panel is one of the cases where a court had reviewed its own judgment and set it aside because of allegation of bias or its likelihood.
“Therefore, we urge the CJN to continue with her radical sanitisation of the judiciary and wish to remind her that sanitising the judiciary should not end with mere compulsory retirement of erring judges, it should involve giving redress to victims of judicial recklessness and prosecution of erring judges too.”