NJC has surrendered itself to the executive – Justice Salami

The immediate past President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Ayo Isa Salami yesterday said the National Judicial Council (NJC) set up to protect judicial officers has surrendered itself to the executive arm of government for personal favours. Justice Salami said this at a special valedictory court session held in his honour at the […]

The immediate past President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Ayo Isa Salami yesterday said the National Judicial Council (NJC) set up to protect judicial officers has surrendered itself to the executive arm of government for personal favours.
Justice Salami said this at a special valedictory court session held in his honour at the Court of Appeal Headquarters in Abuja yesterday.
Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke SAN was nowhere to be found nor was he represented when he called to give an address.
Salami noted that it  is on record that the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar advised the executive and the legislative arms of government that the NJC is the final authority in matters concerning judicial officers as all the powers it needed are contained in the constitution.
He said since the NJC had cleared him of any wrongdoing in the case that involved him and the former CJN Katsina-Alu, he ought to have been recalled back to office.
Asking President Jonathan to exercise the power he does not possess, according to Salami, was a flimsy excuse. He argued that all NJC needed to do was to write the President in view of the CJN’s committee that recommended his recall.
 He accused his fellow Judges of conspiracy to destroy him by throwing him into a well and selling him into slavery, like the Biblical Joseph.
He also said: “my learned brothers and friends in the legal profession planned and executed doing evil to me”.
He said that Justice Moses A. Bello, President of the Abuja Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Customary Court of Appeal was an imposter for presiding over a meeting he was not competent to chair.
Salami said that the consequence of his conduct was that both the meeting chaired by Justice Moses A. Bello (that arrived at the decision to suspend him) along with the decision taken was a nullity.
 “It is this illegal decision that the NJC had been relying upon to keep me out of office from 18th August, 2011, he stressed.
Salam said the former CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher did not act promptly as it took him several months and several meetings of the NJC before he presented the report recommending his recall to the NJC for consideration.
In his address, the acting President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa described Salami as a legal icon and praised him for not compromising on the welfare of the Justices and staff of the Court of Appeal.