How my father jailed man for bribing him – Aniagolu’s daughter
Wearing a simple, beautifully-tailored red dress and a pair of well-polished black shoes to match, the sparkling-eyed Chief Aniagolu said in an exclusive interview with Sunday Trust in Enugu, that the story still remains relevant to the Nigerian society, particularly now the nation is currently being ‘entertained’ with incredible stories of mind-bloggling corruption allegations in […]
Wearing a simple, beautifully-tailored red dress and a pair of well-polished black shoes to match, the sparkling-eyed Chief Aniagolu said in an exclusive interview with Sunday Trust in Enugu, that the story still remains relevant to the Nigerian society, particularly now the nation is currently being ‘entertained’ with incredible stories of mind-bloggling corruption allegations in various sectors of the country.
Recounting the saga that took place when she was a child, she said: “This takes me back many years ago, I think 1964 or 1965. Like I said, he (dad) had a very fiery temper, and I remember this because he would always remind us of what happened. I remember he was bellowing in the house and he was very sad about something, and what really happened was that he had just been posted to Calabar as a High Court Judge.”
“And, of course, the Igbo Community in Calabar was excited that an Igbo Judge had come to Calabar.This Igbo business man, who didn’t know my father well, had just heard about him and was quite excited. Apparently, the man had a case in court, and he felt the case was going to go his way, because of the new Igbo Judge. He came to visit my dad, and my father welcomed him and listened to what he had to say. Of course, my father was a very dramatic person and a great story teller, which made him a very good lawyer. When he told this story himself, he would be demonstrating the incident,as well.”
She further recalls, “And the man told him (dad) he had a case in his court, and that he would like to request that this case be ruled in his favour and so on…My father was mortified and couldn’t believe it: who gave the man the audacity to come to his house to discuss a case with him. So, he told the man well, no problem. Just sit and wait. Do you care for something to drink? My dad went upstairs and phoned the Commissioner of Police. The man had brought drinks and everything as offerings to my father for the case to be in his favour.”
“My father came down and said to the man you came to my house to insult me, but the man was confused: He brought gifts for him and he was saying he was being insulted. But my dad insisted that he came to his house to insult him. Do you understand what you’re doing to me as a Judge? You are demeaning me. As he was saying it the police arrived. He signed the man’s warrant of arrest. This was a big business man. They arrested the man and had him remanded in prison custody. They brought him to court in the morning. My father used this man as an example.”
She recalled vividly how the members of the man’s family lamented inside the court room concerning the fate of their bread winner. “Members of the man’s family were inside the court wailing and pleading. My father said that anybody inside this court that was not quiet would be going to jail with the man. Eventually, the man’s Lawyer pleaded his case, and he was fined and sentenced to some days or weeks in prison. Now, when my father was explaining the incident to us he said, that as a Judge, the man was not even supposed to come to his house as he had a case in Court.
Comparing the saga with the recent bribery scandals rocking public officials in Nigeria, she said, “So imagine that story with what is transpiring now in the country. What somebody uses to offer you as bribe should also be used as an exhibit. And as soon as the bribe offer is made, the police should come in and arrest the person with the bribe as exhibit, and then the case begins.”
Asked how her father would have reacted to the rule of law that has become a burning issue in Nigeria’s democracy, Loretta Aniagolu, who is a business woman explained, “I know he was very concerned when the early slide began. Indeed, I am aware he had written a very strong letter to Justice Uwais, who was the Chief Justice of the Country at that point, reminding them of the need to ensure that the rule of law was upheld in Nigeria. He maintained that if there was going to be a smooth democracy the rule of law must not be allowed to suffer, if so, there could be far reaching implications for this country, which would be deep and devastating. I remembered this because I had discussed the letter with him, and I knew the Chief Judge received the letter. I don’t know what he made of it but it was a very strong letter. My father was a man of records; everything he did, he kept records of them, so we all have records of these things.”
She told Sunday Trust that even when the issue of succession in the Enugu State judiciary caused some ripples as to who would actually be made the Chief Judge of the State, the retired Justice never kept silent, rather he quickly wrote to the National Judicial Council (NJC) concerning the issue at stake.
“I also knew that when the issue came up in Enugu state and there was a bit of rancour over the succession of who would be made the Chief Judge, he also wrote to the National Judicial Council (NJC) on the need for the Judiciary to maintain its integrity, without fear or favour because if they compromised that, the entire society would be undermined. I recall this because we also discussed that. In the period of years that he retired, he still made sure that he was outspoken,and he always told the truth as he saw it,” she said point-blank.
She also recalled how the former military President Ibrahim Babangida interacted with the late Supreme Court Justice, and why the soldier held the jurist in high esteem even in death. “I remember when he had passed on, and the former president, General Ibrahim Babangida was talking with me about his interaction with my father; as you are aware, he was the Chairman of the Constitutional Assembly from 1988 to 1989, which Nigeria is yet to implement. He (IBB) said to me that one thing he liked about my Dad was that he would always look you straight in the eye and tell you exactly what he thought on any issue. That he always sought his counsel because he knew that he had no hidden agenda and that he would give his opinion with all forthrightness and honesty, whether you liked or you didn’t like what he would tell you, he would, indeed, tell you his mind. That he (IBB) always felt very good about it because that was what made him a good friend,” recalled Loretta Aniagolu.
The lady, who is the first daughter of the late Aniagolu is unhappy that the old wise men who used to be her father’s friend “before becoming my friends” have all gone the way of their ancestors. Every day, she continues to miss people like the late Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi; former Governor of old Anambra State, Chief C.C. Onoh; the late Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu; her father Justice Aniagolu and of course the person who just passed on on June 1st 2012, Oba Oladere Olashola, the Oba of Iloko Ijesha, Osun State, South West zone of Nigeria. She confided in Sunday Trust that she drank from the wisdom of these great men who, she said, had tremendous influence on her world view right from childhood. “They were very, very supportive to my career, they were very good friends to the family; they were very good friends of my dad,” she remarked.
According to her, “I think professionally today, I am who I am and I have got to where I am because of the advice I had received from my father and these people. I would say that such great counsel I have lost; I would tell you that in the last twelve months, from June 28, 2011 when he died, I would say that the older men who had been my very good friends, who knew me as a child, who were my father’s friends and then became my friends, and all three of them had died within twelve months. And these were people who, when anything came up, I would want to discuss with them. I knew they would give me honest advice; they would be brutally honest, and they would say this is right and this is the truth. So it’s like wow! What a year it has been!”