Posted by By TUNDE RAHEEM, Ado Ekiti on
The crisis rocking Ekiti State over the impeachment saga of Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose on Wednesday deepened as the state House of Assembly announced the suspension of the Chief Judge, Justice Kayode Bamisile, from office.
The crisis rocking Ekiti State over the impeachment saga of Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose on Wednesday deepened as the state House of Assembly announced the suspension of the Chief Judge, Justice Kayode Bamisile, from office.
In the place of the CJ, the House appointed Justice Jide Aladejana as acting Chief Judge.
The House also dissolved the seven-man panel constituted by the suspended CJ. It mandated its appointed acting CJ to set up another seven-man panel to investigate the allegation against the governor and his deputy, Mrs. Abiodun Olujimi.
Reacting to the purported suspension, Justice Bamisile described the action as a hoax, adding that the lawmakers had no power to remove him from office. Also, Fayose, who spoke in a statewide broadcast last night, described the legislators' action as ridiculous and unconstitutional. He said the lawmakers went beyond their bounds by pronouncing the suspension of the CJ.
The development has also split lawyers, with some backing it and others denouncing it as irregular and unconstitutional.
In suspending the CJ, the House accused him of bias in his selection of member of the seven-man panel that would probe Governor Fayose and his deputy. Twenty four members, out of the 26 lawmakers, who passed the vote of no confidence in the CJ, also accused Justice Bamisile of refusing to appear before the House on Wednesday with the curriculum vitaes of members of the seven-man panel he had set up on Tuesday. They also accused him of collecting money and vehicle from Governor Fayose with a promise to take care of the panel members. He was also accused of collecting N15 million out of N25 million legal fee paid to Barrister Niyi Akintola (SAN), counsel to the state House of Assembly on the EFCC case.
Justice Bamisile however, claimed ignorance of all the offences leveled against him, saying that he was exercising the constitutional power vested in him to appoint the panel members. He said that the lawmakers had exercised their own power by asking him to appoint the panel and should therefore let him perform his duty.
He said that the lawmakers lacked jurisdiction to suspend him from office, adding that the act was purely illegal and unconstitutional.
'What they have done amount to illegality and it shows that they want to be a judge in their own case and it is against the rule of law."
On the allegation of collecting money from the governor, the CJ said that the money was raised in the name of the state judiciary, adding that the Chief Registrar is the chief accounting officer of the state judiciary
Governor Fayose, in the broadcast, lamented that the legislators had to usurp the functions of the executive by turning the nation's constitution 'into a paper," adding: 'It is quite unfortunate. I don't expect them to have behaved in such a manner."
He appealed to the purported acting Chief Judge, Justice Aladejana, not to allow himself to be dragged into the murky waters of politics.
Fayose told the people of the state to condemn the action of the legislators in its entirety, adding that their action was also a complete nullity.
'Our lawmakers in this state have rubbished our constitution and they deserve total condemnation by well meaning Nigerians," he said.
He said that there couldn't be two panels in Ekiti, adding: 'Bamisile remains the only Chief Judge in this state."
Speaking on the drama in Ekiti, a legal practitioner and chieftain of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, said that the lawmakers could suspend a chief judge, adding, 'with two-third of the House, the CJ could even be sacked."
Another Lagos-based lawyer, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, agreed with Adebanjo, asserting that 'the lawmakers have the constitutional right to suspend the CJ. They are right, absolutely right. If two-third of the lawmakers can prove that the CJ is a man of questionable character, they can pass a motion giving the governor power to suspend or remove the CJ."
A constitution lawyer, Mr Fred Agbaje, disagreed, saying: 'The lawmakers lack every constitutional power under the sun to suspend the CJ even for one second from office." He said that the bedrock of constitutional arrangement was that there is division and separation of powers among all arms of the government, pointing out that while the executive arm could not interfere with the judiciary or any other arm so also none of the other arms could interfere with the duties of executive or with the duties of one another.
Agbaje therefore said: 'The appointment and discipline of judicial officers as of today in Nigeria is constitutionally rested in the National Judicial Council, (NJC), which is an arm of the judiciary," emphasizing that 'no House of Assembly, which is the legislature, has any constitutional power to remove an ordinary magistrate not to talk of a Chief Judge."
Another dimension was however, added to the matter by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who said the cases in Ekiti State should rather be taken holistically and not in isolation. He declared that what is being witnessed in Ekiti State was a fruit of lawlessness perpetrated since 2003, regretting that the people in government did not let the law work in the state.
Quoting section 188 (a) Olanipekun said after the composition of the panel, the CJ has no more business with it as it is the duty of the House of Assembly to take over.
While describing the situation as delicate, he said that section 188 of the constitution clearly stated that the people to sit on the panel must be of integrity, saying once people raised eyebrows on some of the panel members, the CJ should have made amends.
The CJ's action, according to Olanipekun 'must be judicial and judicious," adding that he was not expected to take brief from any governor.