When a Judge jumps into the arena.

The decision by the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr. Danladi Umar to openly debate a matter before him might have opened an unsavoury chapter in his present travails, writes Shola Oyeyipo.

In the gathering of humankind, judges are ‘classified immortals’. Through enviable social stratification, their humanity comes with a degree of preternatural exemption that is assumed to wield the power of “life and death”.

Therefore, here on earth, judges are some sort of Supreme Being, which explains why they are referred to as “Lord”. But whilst they boast this huge advantage over others, such a privilege also comes with certain discomforting albeit basic rules, amongst which is “to be seen and not heard” regardless of what is at stake.

Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr. Danladi Umar, recently defied this golden rule of expectation, when he granted an online news medium an interview and either for reasons of naivety or uncalculated conviction, descended into the arena of politics, discussing a matter before as if an interested party.
Of course, it is important to first establish why he might have chosen that route. Umar has been in the thick of the storm lately for many reasons.

Amongst such reasons are the many allegations levelled against him, some of which allegedly border on bribery and corruption, diversion of official funds for personal use, award of contract without following due process and award of fictitious contracts.

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the allegations were not being made in the pubs. Rather, they were being levelled by serious minded people, who have also explored all legal means of investigations and criminal trial – the courts, the Senate and House of Representatives. One of the groups battling with him on the issues is the Anti-Corruption Network.

Umar’s accusers have also continued to provide official letters from all the right quarters – EFCC, Presidency, NJC, office of the Attorney General of the Federation and others to buttress their agitation for his trial.

Above all, the accusations have been subject of newspaper, broadcast and online media discussions, such that he is now probably a contestant for the ‘Man of the Year Award’ as the head of a judicial body, whose name is famous not for his landmark cases and judgments but for accusations which ordinarily should have come before his tribunal.

All the wrong reasons, you may say.

But in the heat of this, Umar chose the radical path and decided to do what a judge anywhere in the world is not expected to do and would not either – the umpire decided to join the game and made a stake. First, it was some groups, NGO that started giving voice to the position of Umar. Later, he started using some faceless writers.

Eventually, the masquerade was unmasked last week as Umar descended into the arena. He called up an on-line medium and granted an interview in which he tried to drag a respected Justice of the highest court, Hon. Justice George Oguntade (rtd) into the muddy, murky waters of the bribery scandal.

In an unprecedented manner unbecoming of a head of a judicial institution with adjudicatory powers, Umar made several comments on the cases before him. He made inferences and insinuations about the cases before him and also cast aspersions on the former Chief Justice of Nigeria over the latter’s warning to him and his fellow Tribunal members not to refer to themselves as Justices based on the law.

Ponder some of the content of his interview.

Asked why he has declined the invitation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he wasted no time in descending on Justice Oguntade.

“The whole episode was stage-managed just to tarnish my image because some people felt my profile was rising. How on earth could a person of my caliber be asking for a bribe? It is very embarrassing. And besides, the so-called petitioner before the EFCC (Rasheed Taiwo, a retired comptroller of customs charged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal for allegedly failing to declare his assets), if he said that I asked him for money, and he has paid that money – if he has done that with the intention of setting me up, what stops him from going straight away to the EFCC on the very first day that he paid that money?

“According to him, he paid the money to the account number of my personal assistant on December 12, 2012. What took him so long, up to eight months, before he went to report at the EFCC after I already ruled that I have jurisdiction, and I must try him? You can imagine the scenario here. If he knew he did that purposely to set me up, he would have immediately gone to EFCC and told them, but he did not until I ruled against him, [stating] I have jurisdiction against him, and I must try him. That was when he now went to cook up that issue.

“And, thank God, the money was not paid to me; the money was found in my personal assistant’s account. I had no idea he had collected any money from that man. And one thing you must be aware of is, this is somebody who was introduced to me by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice George Oguntade, who I did not even know myself but because we lawyers and judges, we do have respect for our elders.

When the man (Justice Oguntade) called me – you know he stays here in Lagos – he called me to say that he has a brother, who has a problem in my court and asked whether there was any way I could help him.

“For him to even open his mouth to ask whether I could help his brother was even wrong, which means he wanted me to commit an illegality. So, I now said to him, ‘My Lord, this is the position I’m going to take, and you should ask your cousin to look for a very good lawyer to defend him, and that is all I can do.’ And that was all that happened. You see, at the time Justice Oguntade wanted to see me, I was putting up at Eko Meridian Hotel in Lagos. And so, when he called me, he got my number from a judge friend, Justice sadiq.

“Justice Sadiq called me and said to me that one Justice Oguntade wanted to speak to me. ‘I was one-time his chief registrar when he was at the Court of Appeal. Please, can he call you?’ Justice Sadiq asked. And I said who am I? A retired justice of the Supreme Court wants to talk to me, I cannot say no. So, I said, ‘Give him my number.’ And seven minutes later, Justice Oguntade called and said, ‘Ah my lord, how are you? I want to come to Abuja and see you.’ And I said, ‘Well, incidentally, I’m in Lagos.’ He said, ‘What! What a coincidence. Please where are you staying in Lagos?’ I said, ‘I’m at Eko Meridian,’ and he said could he come. I replied, ‘How can you come to me? Rather, send your driver to take me to you,’ because of the respect I had for him as a retired justice of the Supreme Court.
“When I got to his house, I saw him, very old.

Of course, he had retired from the Supreme Court since 2004, and so he clocked 70 as far back as 2004. When he saw me, he said, ‘You look so very young.’ Usually, people who occupy the position I’m occupying are people who are above 60 years, because you must have been a retired judge or a retired chief judge of a state and then, after a year or so, you begin to vie for this particular office.

So, usually they retire at the age of 65. And for them to actually get a position as the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal may take them about another year, and so, they usually assume the position at the age of 66 and then they retire after four years.

“But in my own case, I became the chairman of the tribunal at the age of 36. And so, a lot of people have been wondering how I made it. To them, how on earth did I even get that and they have forgotten the fact that it is only God that gives power to whom He wishes. And so I begin to have a problem with some people based on that.

And so, Justice Oguntade now said, ‘I would like you to help me.’ And I told him I would see what I could do, ‘but I want you to tell your cousin to get a very good lawyer.’ And at the time I met with Justice Oguntade, the man in question (Rasheed Taiwo) had not even been served because he was evading summons.

“So, I went back to my hotel and the next day, I flew back to Abuja. After about a week—my office is a public office, you can just fill in a form from my secretary and come in to see me, so he (Rasheed Taiwo) filled a form and requested to see me. He came in, and when he sat down, I said, ‘How can I help you?’ He said, ‘I’m Rasheed Taiwo Owolabi from Justice Oguntade.’ Now it clicked in my mind, and I said, ‘Okay, I have spoken about you with the Honorable Justice Oguntade and I told him that you should go and get a good counsel, and that is the only thing I can do for you. Go and get a counsel to represent you,’ I told him, and in less than three minutes, the man left my office. That was the last I heard of him.

“So, whether he had given my personal assistant money, I don’t know what transpired after that. If he had given me money, would I have given judgment against him? Definitely, I would have found a way to take him out of that situation. But [the accusation] was just arranged for some people to get me out of office, and they have forgotten that I did not give this position to myself, it was God who gave it to me, and it is only God Himself that can take it from me, but nobody. So, this is the situation.

They have written all sorts of petitions against me to everywhere, and once I respond with my side of the story, that ends it because there is no substance whatsoever in their allegations.”
Unfortunately, by this conduct, Umar has joined the fray. But as he has descended into the arena, he might be unable to peacefully return to the elevated seat as a judge.

A judge can only be heard in his court room but Umar has moved into the newsroom to discuss his case. It is not heard anywhere in the world that a head of an adjudication body would openly discuss his cases and pontificate in the media.

But Umar did. He has desecrated the hallowed chamber of justice and polluted the atmosphere.

He has justified the reason why former CJN Alooma Mukhtar said the Tribunal members are not judicial officers but only swear to administrative oath. Without prejudice, how will litigants like Saraki and Orubebe feel comfortable that they will get justice from a man, who has taken their case to the public and thoroughly lambasted their position on law.

Of course, counsel to Saraki or Orubebe or any defendant before Umar would insist that he steps down and excuse himself from the case as he has already aligned. Umar can no longer be an impartial arbiter. He has taken side and has compromised his position.

The most honourable thing to do is to step down from that seat and allow somebody else to take over the case in which he has shown more than a passing interest.

For instance, his interview on Sahara Reporters seems to have confirmed the views of those who say that the online medium is being used by some forces in high quarters to influence the cases at the CCT. Remember, SR is the medium the Saraki camp has identified as waging wars against all the other courts and judges before whom Saraki has taken his case against the CCT.

Thus, by making spurious claims, leveling serious allegations and lambasting the judges, many of the judges either excused themselves from the cases or simply declined jurisdiction so as to save their names and escape from being disparaged, defamed and pilloried by Umar’s attack force.

Now with Umar using the medium directly to attack a former CJN, an ex-Justice of the apex court as well as litigants before him and their counsel, it may be getting clearer whose errand SR might have been running.

At this point, it is left for the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) and the NJC to tackle the indiscipline and menace that this Tribunal head has become. If they allow Umar to get away with this affront on the institutions that he has decided to rubbish, then he will be rubbishing the entire judicial architecture.

From all indications, what Umar sought to do was hit back at the apex court for not allowing him to rush through the Saraki case, even when an appeal is pending before the higher court.

If he was left to go scot-free, his attitude might encourage other ‘rascal’ heads of quasi-judicial bodies to confront and challenge constitutionally constituted bodies and entities, particularly when they cannot get their way.

As it is, Umar might have now become a one-man riot squad in the justice system, disorganising the age-long hierarchy of courts and the stare decisis principle. If nothing is done, he would be emulated by other half-baked, quasi-judicial officers, who assume powers not provided for in the laws.

Evidently, Umar cannot but be controversial. He has become the judge believed to have the most questionable and unpardonable conducts. He is believed to have failed to prove that he is just being set up for destruction. He is also believed to have failed the test of becoming the major poster boy of this country’s anti-corruption institutions.

It is therefore important that President Muhammadu Buhari takes cognizance of all these sad developments and act fast. The nation is watching and the entire world is equally waiting to see how the rude challenge of one man against the entire justice system could help shape the promised anti-corruption war of the Buhari administration.