Friday, March 29, 2024

When power wielders incur the wrath of judges

BY BRIGHT JACOB

In what has been described as something of a rarity, the heads of three high-profile security apparatus in Nigeria were placed on the chopping block after some courts pronounced judgements against them, ordering their imprisonment over their offence bordering on contempt of valid court orders.

The unceremonious punishment of the guilty parties, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions, Abdulrasheed Bawa, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, and the Chief of Army Staff, Farouk Yahaya, has, expectedly, raised the question of who can arrest security big shots when they are on the wrong side of the law, and, on the flip side, also given the impression that judges may have woken up from slumber and decided to tackle impunity.

Bawa was the first to be given bad press. The Chairman of the EFCC drew the displeasure of Justice Chizoba Oji of the Federal High Court which sat in Abuja, after he flouted the order of the court to return a Range Rover (Super Charge) SUV and the sum of N40m to a former Air Vice Marshal of the Nigeria Air Force, Rufus Adeniyi Ojuawo.

The court had sentenced Bawa to prison at the Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja, for his disobedience of the said order, until he purged himself of the contempt.

After he filed an appeal, the EFCC boss got some reprieve after the judge set aside her earlier decision, saying that Bawa had made some attempt to comply with the order.

Then, it was the turn of Baba, the IGP. A senior police officer, Patrick Okoli, was summarily dismissed in 1993 and approached the court. He eventually got an order for his reinstatement in 2011.

However, this was not to be as succeeding IGPs disregarded the order.

On November 29, 2022, relief came for Okoli after Justice M.O Olajuwon sentenced the IGP to three months imprisonment for disobeying a valid court order. The court also ordered the payment of N10m to Okoli, being special and general damages for his unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional denial of his rights and privileges as a senior officer of the Nigeria Police Force from 1993 till date.

Responding, however, the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the office of the IGP was not aware of any order and that the IGP has, however, directed the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Force Legal Unit to investigate the allegation in a bid to ascertain the position of the court and proffer informed legal advice for the IGP’s prompt and necessary action.

The IGP has now filed a motion of appeal seeking to set aside the decision of the court
In a third high-profile ruling in weeks, a Federal High Court sitting in Minna, Niger state, on December 1, 2022, issued a warrant of arrest for the Chief of Army Staff, Farouk Yahaya, for contempt.
The order was issued in respect of a suit between Adamu Makama and 42 others versus the executive governor of Niger state and seven others.

The lawyer to the plaintiff had prayed the court to commit Farouk to prison for disobeying an order made by the court on October 12, 2022.

Reacting to the litany of committal procedures, a lawyer and public affairs analyst, Liborous Oshoma, in an interview with The Point said that he wasn’t surprised that the IGP said he was not aware of the matter as that was the “usual defence.”

He also lamented the delay in Nigeria’s justice delivery system, stating that “justice delayed is justice denied”.

Also, Oshoma said that the IGP should have been aware that after he assumed office, he inherited both the assets and liability of the office.

“First and foremost, if the IGP said that he was aware of the matter, I would have been surprised because the usual defence is that we are not aware. Even the Attorney General, the Federal Government, will always tell you that we are not aware of this order, we are not aware of that matter or we have not been served.

“So, it is the usual cliché, and I am not taken aback or surprised by the fact the IGP said he wasn’t aware.

“That said, we say the windmill of Justice grinds slowly but surely, but we forget that justice delayed is justice denied. This is an order that has been granted since 2011.

“The police have consistently flouted and disobeyed court orders, and like the Supreme Court said when you disobey a court order, it is not the order of the judge you flout, it is the order of justice you flout.

“The IG should also know that he inherits both assets and liabilities of the office. And it is not you in person, it is the office. The order was directed at the IGP, and if you’re the IGP now, what you should do is to comply with orders that had been issued against that office,” he added.

Another senior lawyer, Honesty Eguridu, told The Point that courts have the power to enforce their judgements or effect the arrest of those who are in contempt of its orders.

“A lot of conservative judges are leaving the bench gradually and we are seeing new judges that are more pragmatic and radical, coming on board. Any judge that can make those kinds of decisions is a radical judge. A judge who can say I will slam the IGP, the EFCC boss and COAS with contempt of court, must be radical in nature, and it is good for our judiciary”

According to Eguridu, the courts have been using this power “sparingly”.

Explaining further, Eguridu said the situation was like that because of the belief that “courts don’t give orders in a vacuum”.

In other words, courts, more often than not, give orders they can enforce.

Highlighting further, he said that the different orders against the heads of the EFCC, Police and Army, show “the high level of impunity in government” which had trickled down to the security agencies.

Making these submissions, Eguridu said, “Normally, the courts have the power to enforce their judgements and orders. The power of the courts to enforce and order the arrest of anyone that disobeys a court order is an inherent power that every court of law has. Even the least court, the customary court, has that power and can order the arrest of anybody that is in contempt of its order.”

Speaking further, he said, “But Nigerian courts have been using this power sparingly for some time now. Because, one, we have a belief…they say in law that courts should not make an order in a vacuum.

So, a court should be able to make an order that it can enforce.

“But what we have seen in recent times now…the order regarding the EFCC boss, the IGP and the COAS…there has been impunity. There’s a high level of impunity in government, especially in the executive arm and that impunity has trickled down to the security agencies.”

Continuing, Eguridu also said that impunity had gotten worse under the Buhari administration and was “rubbed on the faces of the courts”.

In his assessment, judges are now angry and are becoming “radical” with their judgements.

Eguridu also observed that there was a level of awakening among Nigerians, not just the judges only, that people be held accountable for their actions.

Besides this, he added that the 2023 general elections had also helped “everybody to become more aware of a lot of things.”

Eguridu also said of the judges, “They are only now taking their proper place in the scheme of things. Also, we now have a new crop of judges coming up, and some of the older judges are retiring. We have younger ones coming in. And with time, we’ll see more of this trend.”

Shedding more light on this, he said, “A lot of conservative judges are leaving the bench gradually and we are seeing new judges that are more pragmatic and radical, coming on board. Any judge that can make those kinds of decisions is a radical judge. A judge who can say I will slam the IGP, the EFCC boss and COAS with contempt of court, must be radical in nature, and it is good for our judiciary,” he said.

On how the court could enforce its order and who could arrest erring security chiefs, Eguridu said even if it seemed laughable, it should nonetheless be in the record books that the police boss was sentenced to prison for disobedience to a court order, so that “the next time he sees one, he would have second thoughts about flouting it.”

On who could carry out the arrest, he said, “I don’t think anybody can arrest these big shots…even the judges that gave the sentences don’t really believe that it will be enforced. But it’s just for the public to be aware that there’s a high level of impunity going on and the courts are no longer going to take it lying the way they did in the past.”

Also asked to give his opinion on the IGP not being aware of the matter, Eguridu said that could be possible because of the way institutions were organised in Nigeria.

In his submission, some government officials had grown beyond their offices and institutions were now built around them.

In addition, he said, “For this particular case, it’s possible that somebody in the Legal Unit of the police “sat on the case” and “wouldn’t allow it to go out to the IGP’s notice.”

“When they bring the contempt proceeding to them in the Legal Unit, they will put it aside, laughing over it because they may believe that nobody can arrest the IGP. This is why it is possible the IGP might not be aware. They should reshape their Legal Unit so that things can be done properly there,” Eguridu observed.

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