Salami, victim of politics — Oyebode

Renowned international law scholar and Head, International Law and Jurisprudence Department, University of Lagos, Prof. Akin Oyebode, has said the reinstatement of the former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, was stalled due to ‘high wire politics.’
President Goodluck Jonathan had on November 22 approved the appointment of the second Acting President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa.
The don, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH on Thursday, berated the National Judicial Council for failing to reinstate Salami.
According to him, Salami’s case was an object of ridicule to the judiciary.
Oyebode said, “On October 1, I said on a national television that the case of Justice Salami was a blight on the Nigerian judiciary because this is a man who has been made a victim of high-wire politics. He is being tried and convicted of not doing the bidding of the power that were and the power that still are.
“There is a maxim that lawyers like to invoke- Fiat justitia ruat caelum, meaning ‘Let justice be done even if heavens fall.’ But like Justice Chukwudifu Oputa used to say, ‘When justice is done, heavens don’t fall. The heavens actually rejoice.’
“Rather than vilifying principled judges, we should celebrate them instead of doing what we have done to Salami.
“If this is how we want to treat our judges, then we are desecrating the temple of justice. The National Judicial Council has flip-flopped and seems to have been dancing some funny jitterbug in the case of Salami.”
Oyebode warned that posterity would judge those saddled with the responsibility to reinstate Salami but failed to do so.
He added, “When the history of these times will be written, the present power wielders would not escape unscathed. History is going to be very harsh on the present generation for deeming it fit to maltreat Salami and subject him to such vilification and ignominy.
“I think Nigerians owe him tremendous apology for all the rubbish that has been heaped on him. I don’t think we have acted well; I think we ought to behave in a better fashion. We all collectively owe that gentleman a colossal apology.”
Bulkachuwa was appointed as acting PCA, following the expiration of Justice Dalhatu Adamu’s term in the office on November 23, 2012.
It would be recalled that following Salami’s suspension by the NJC in 2011, Adamu was appointed as acting PCA on August 21, 2011. Although his tenure was expected to last for three months, Jonathan had on five separate occasions extended his tenure, leading to insinuations that there was a constitutional crisis in the Court of Appeal, and the country’s judiciary.