The Fawehinmi I know

There were, perhaps a hundred or more of us, from different backgrounds and various parts of the country. He arrived quite late in the evening but began work with other notable administrators of the fund. They listened to my story, smiled and re-echoed Adetula’s position that I was not an indigent student. When I left […]

There were, perhaps a hundred or more of us, from different backgrounds and various parts of the country. He arrived quite late in the evening but began work with other notable administrators of the fund. They listened to my story, smiled and re-echoed Adetula’s position that I was not an indigent student. When I left the Ondo Town Hall, I was not disappointed even without the cash in my pocket, I had seen live the irrepressible Gani Fawehinmi. It felt like a trophy in your memory and all that without paying any gate fees.

I had no inkling that I would see him again on a personal level. Having joined Newswatch, I was attached to the Miscellaneous Offences Tribunal sitting in Ikoyi. The celebrated case of one Joe Brown Akubueze interested me. NDLEA officials celebrated him as a baron. But this poor man got involved in money-laundering because of his need to raise funds to revive a moribund business. He had nothing to show for life except life itself.  After a cover, we began to dig into other cases and stumbled on the rot in the tribunal itself and the saga of a judge by the name Olufunmilayo Oni-Okpaku. She was a sort of judicial celebrity. She spat fire on the bench and was good at speaking good English. She was also dreaded by the drug couriers that came before her because she always convicts them.

Something about this judge drew attention. She lived big and that attracted our interest. There was this case of a baron she convicted. He appealed the sentence almost immediately but before his appeal could be determined; his assets had been confiscated and hurriedly auctioned. One of his classic Mercedes Benz was bought by the judge using a proxy. But she was driving the car eventually. It turned out that usually Madam Judge bought the properties of her convict – a journalist’s delight. When we checked through her record of convictions, 60 per cent were upturned on appeal. We did series of covers but none rankled the judge like the fact that she drove the property of a convict who eventually won his appeal and wanted his property back.

For that we got an invitation from Madam Judge to appear before her. I went prepared with a face towel, toothpaste, bathing soap and other toiletries. Not so my editors, Messrs Ray Ekpu, Soji Akinrinade, Mike Akpan and Wale Akin Aina. Ekpu came in his snazzy suit, Soji in kaftan, Akpan and Wale and I in trouser and shirt.  In court, our case was top of the day and after we were ordered to stay standing, Madam Judge unleashed on us every expletive in the Thesaurus. She called us hack reporters and men of little minds out to rubbish her hard-earned reputation. Then, the clincher, she sentenced us to ‘the worst prison in Lagos’ until we have purged ourselves of our contempt. It was a Friday. A classic day to sentence anyone since no redress till Monday.

We ended up at the Bar Beach police station where we were treated kindly by the police. No sooner had we arrived than Gani Fawehinmi arrived. He was boiling like a cauldron. He reviewed our case with us and offered us pro-bono services. Come Monday, Gani was in court. He stood up to the judge like a David before Goliath and in unmistakeable terms dressed down the judge ignoring the judge’s threats of contempt. He told her he too could descend to gutter language just like her. He dug into the archives of our little achievements as award-winning editors and journalists and asked Oni-Okpaku to take back her vitriolic diatribes. She refused, he stuck to his guns.  We were freed and got rave reviews in the press alongside Gani. Gani had assured the judge it would not end there. He made good his threat by filing an appeal for damages running into millions. We didn’t get the money, but we got back our pride.

That was the Gani I know. That was the Gani I’ll remember. I hope Nigeria will remember him too and someday give him the honour he so much deserved!