The National Judicial Council (NJC) has recommended the compulsory retirement of Hon. Justice C. E. Archibong of the Federal High Court Lagos and Hon. Justice T.D. Naron of the Plateau State High Court.
The NJC, chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, took the decision at its emergency meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja.
The two judges have been placed on suspension, the council said in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its Acting Director (Information), Mr. Soji Oye.
This is in line with its disciplinary powers under the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The council has also “set up a ‘Fact Finding’ Committee to investigate the allegations levelled against Hon. Justice Abubakar Talba of the FCT High Court in the Police Pension case of EFCC vs Mr. John Yusuf & Ors.”, the statement said.
Justice Talba sentenced Yusufu to a two-year jail term after he (Yusuf) had pleaded guilty to a three-count charge in the N32.8 billion police pension fraud. The jail term is to run concurrently.
The Judge, however, gave the convict an option of N250,000 fine for each of the three counts. The sentence sparked negative criticisms of the judge.
Justice Naron chaired the first Osun State Elelction Petition Tribunal, which affirmed the victory of former Osun Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola in the petition of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its candidate, Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
The Court of Appeal, Ibadan, later sacked Oyinlola and declared Aregbesola winner of the May 2007 election.
Following a petition by a counsel to Aregbesola’s counsel, Mr. Ajibola Basiru, that the tribunal headed by Justice T.D. Naron was embroiled in call logs controversy with the lead counsel to Oyinlola, Kunle Kalejaiye (SAN), the NJC raised a team to investigate the allegation.
Despite Basiru’s request for the tribunal members to disqualify themselves from the trial, the judges went ahead to deliver judgment on the case on July 15, 2008.
The Council also received another petition against the judges on February 4, 2011 from Basiru.
The NJC said “Justice T. D. Naron of High Court of Justice, Plateau State was recommended for compulsory retirement to Governor David Jonah Jang sequel to the ‘Findings’ by the Council that there were constant and regular voice calls and exchange of mms and sms(text) messages between Hon. Justice Naron and one of the lead counsel for one of the parties to the suit in the Osun State Gubernatorial Election Tribunal, contrary to the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria vide Section 292(1((b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
The statement added: “Hon. Justice Archibong was recommended for compulsory retirement to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR pursuant to the ‘Findings” by the Council on the following Complaints levelled against him:-
*That the Judge dismissed the grievous charges against an accused without taking his plea;
*That he refused to release the Certified True Copy of his ruling to the lawyers;
*That the Judge issued a bench warrant on some officials of Peoples Democratic Party for contempt even when the counsel who was directed by the Court to serve them filed an affidavit that he had not been able to serve the contempt application;
*That he made unfounded and caustic remarks on professional competence of some Senior Advocates of Nigeria;
*That there were glaring procedural irregularities which showed that Hon. Justice Archibong did not have a full grasp of the Law and procedure of the Court; and
*That he granted the leave sought for in the originating summons that had no written address of the parties and without hearing both parties in the originating summons after he had earlier on overruled the preliminary objection.”
The News magazine broke the story of the strange call logs, which it supported with call logs of one of the GSM service providers, MTN.
In its edition dated July 14, 2008, The News reported that Oyinlola’s lead counsel at the Osun First Election Petitions Tribunal, Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye, had several telephone conversations with two of the judges on the tribunal, including the chairman, Justice Naron.
According to the report, telephone call records of judges at the Osun tribunal and Kalejaiye pointed to a plot to subvert justice.
The report showed that Kalejaiye and Justice Naron were exchanging text messages even when the panel was sitting and this, said the magazine, took place at times when Justice Naron wanted to hint Kalejaiye about issues to object to.
After the report came out, the Osun State Government was the first to respond, defending Kalejaiye.
In one of the petitions to the NJC, two members of the tribunal, Justices Naron and Ekanem, were specifically mentioned.
The affected SMS and MMS of the judges were from mobile number 08037035105 and 08073160534 (belonging to Justice Naron); 08034105705 (belonging to Justice Ekanem); 08034062075 (belonging to Kunle Kalejaiye, SAN); 08034037521(belonging to Niyi Owolade-ex-Attorney-General of Osun State); and 08066572719(belonging to Sade Alaba Adewunmi—the Interpreter to the tribunal).
In a statement, Oyinlola’s Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Lasisi Olagunju, said that the governor did not enter into any kind of deal with the judges.
Olagunju described as false, claims that Kalejaiye was the linksman between the judges and the governor.
The statement said: “These characters exposed themselves further by forgetting to edit out the MMS entries in the logs which they displayed under a headline claiming they were calls from one of the judges. Every literate person knows that MMS means Multi Media Service, which is used to send pictures. Now, the question is: was the poor judge also sending pictures to lawyer Kalejaiye?
“They even claimed that the judges, who were recording verbatim the proceedings of the tribunal with long hands, were sending text messages to Barrister Kalejaiye while the court was sitting. One would want to ask if the judges have more than two hands?”
Kalejaiye later caused to be published a statement from MTN stating that it was not the source of the call logs.
In the statement, which accompanied the MTN letter, Kalejaiye said he was going to sue the magazine. He also attempted to cast the magazine in the mould of an agent of falsehood.
He made reference to an instance where the magazine’s management had to apologise to him over a case settled out of court. He also said that the call logs showed that the magazine alleged that he was making calls to himself.
The SAN threatened to sue the magazine and that he would not settle out of court this time around.
The management of The News responded to issues raised by Kalejaiye. One, the magazine said that it never claimed MTN gave it the call logs. It also explained that Kalejaiye’s claim that the call logs showed that he was calling himself was a mere error, which had been corrected on the magazine’s website as at the time he made his statement.
The magazine also explained that the case Kalejaiye referred to, which was settled out of court, involved Senator Iyiola Omisore, former deputy governor of Osun State.
According to the magazine, it agreed to settle out of court because its key witness chickened out at the last minute and that it had nothing to do with being an agent of falsehood. It went on to challenge Kalejaiye to go to court if he was sure of himself.
