BIG STRESS AS OLABODE GEORGE AND 4 OTHERS GO TO JAIL

The court house is second home to legal practitioners. It is understandable – it is where they as advocates, practice their profession daily and as honoured officers and priests at the temple of justice for that matter…

Little wonder it came as a rude shock to many Lagos lawyers on Monday 26th October 2009 when they arrived at the Ikeja High Court only to find the gates of the main compound (Compound A) locked against them and manned by armed policemen.

It was already a battle to get through to the gates of the court, courtesy of variegated traffic snarls in all directions and routes leading to the Ikeja High Court.

At the various entrances of the High Court, it was a situation of near bedlam as vehicles of all shapes and sizes were parked just about anywhere and anyhow, as the gates remained shut against people.

When the Squib got to the gates at about 8.55 am., more than forty people were jostling to gain entrance and it took the supreme persuasion for the legal practitioners amongst them to succeed. Most litigants and judiciary staffers were turned back.
It was a most curious situation as even some judges were turned back. At a point when the commotion at the gates was getting too much, the private security men who had the keys of the gates simply drifted away from the scene.

Of course, this only made the situation worse. By now the reason for the unusual development had become known – Honourable Justice Olubunmi Oyewole the trial judge in the case of I.D/71C/2008 Federal Republic of Nigeria versus Chief Olabode George and 4 others, would be delivering the judgment in the sensational case, that very morning and security operatives had taken over the court premises to forestall the possible breach of the peace. The Olabode George case became sensational because of the 1st accused person, a top notcher in the ruling party in Nigeria, and a flamboyant Lagos born politician who believes, it appears, in conquistador politics, practiced albeit in a quixotic fashion.

Olabode George as an accused person, brought colour and disquiet if not controversy to the case as deliberately organized political supporters, dressed in similar, gay, native apparels turned up in the court at every hearing session, in their scores. It was a move calculated to show that George was ‘a man of the people but the sight of several dozens of women in aso-ebi (uniform native dresses) just hanging around the trial court, anytime of the case, riled most observers.
Many people including the governor of the state Babatunde Raji Fashola S.A.N had complained about the spectacle of Olabode George’s “Supporters, turning the court into something of a jamboree or a circus show but the “show” did not stop.:

On D-day (26th October 2009) more “supporters” of Olabode George turned up for the case. They could not have numbered less than five hundred people. Rather surprisingly, despite the activities of the mobile policemen manning the gates, and who turned back many people with good reasons to be in the courts that morning, no less than three hundred of the said “aso-ebied” supporters of Olabode George gained entrance into the court premises.

In the court premises proper, only a few vehicles could be seen and except for the area of Justice Oyewole’s court, the rest of the court complex appeared unusually vacant and silent.

Apart from Justice Oyewole himself who was busy in his court wading through his 110 page judgment, only very few otherjudges, like Mojisola Dada J., Obadina J., Adefope Okojie J. sat in the Ikeja High Court, at least before 10.00 am.
A particular rumour gained ground that the “authorities” had ordered other judges not to sit at the normal hour of 9:am but at 12.30pm! Since it was such a rather curious information, most lawyers found it rather strange but were left in deeper confusion since there was no senior official of the judiciary to confirm or deny the news.

Of course, lawyers could be trusted to react to such a situation. Said one, “Ha, ha, what is this country turning into? Because of the judgment in one court, other courts will not work again?” Another said, “This is how we promote and glorify villains in this country. What is so special about the Bode George case that other courts that other courts must not sit? What of the numerous other cases? Are they now saying those other litigants are not important?”

Yet another counsel had this to say, “I find this directive, if indeed true, rather odd. This is not the first big case in this same Ikeja High Court and in all those instances, nobody stopped courts from working. The particular court handling a sensitive case is the only one, the security people secure. Not everybody is allowed in it or even around it.
Even if the security report indicates that there could be serious problems, then, the judgment should be delivered in the afternoon, say 2.00pm, when most other courts would have finished their business for the day.”

It was the view of yet another counsel that “I bet you that Olabode George will be jailed. It is so apparent that this will be so, otherwise why this unusual security arrangement?”

It was around 1.00pm that news came that judgment had been delivered in the Olabode George case and that the defendants were to spend two years in prison, although they were discharged and acquitted on some other counts. Immediately the judgement ended, the situation turned ugly. Highly disappointed at the judgement, supporters of Olabode George turned aggressive as they pranced about the court premises cursing the judge and “enemies” of their idol. Some of them were seen openly brandishing guns and other weapons, threatening to attack any person who dared take photographs of Olabode George, climbing into the “School Bus” (the maria) that would take him and his co-convicts to the School of Further Adult Education at the Maximum campus, Kirikiri Lagos (maximum security prison).

At this point a group of these supporters pounced on one legal practitioner, M.K.O. Olobi Esq., and beat him up, thoroughly. In previous sessions, Olobi was known for protesting against the turning up of Olabode George’s supporters in court in uniform dresses.

Another person, a journalist too was reportedly assaulted. In spite of all these incidents, the police made no arrests, in fact turned a blind eye, becoming dumb, deaf and blind, in spite of being in large numbers and sufficiently armed.

Said a judiciary staff who witnessed the departure of Olabode George and his case mates from the court after being sentenced, “it was unbelievable that the police could behave the way they did. Can you imagine those people shouting threats at us, in the court premises saying they would kill and and injure us if “anybody takes any picture of baba,” in the very presence of the police and the police just turned away?”

As the trial court has fixed November 9 2009 for the hearing of bail pending appeal application of the convicted men, there are concerns that 26 October 2009 could repeat itself. This, except, the judiciary and the police do things differently in terms of security arrangement.

'HURRICANE AKANDE' HITS LAGOS MAGISTRATES

Office of the Hon. Chief Judge

High Court of Lagos State,

Lagos

2nd October 2009

Ref. No. CJL/JUD/006/VOL.VII/13

TO:

All Magistrates

Lagos State Judiciary

CIRCULAR

POSTING SCHEDULE OF MAGISTRATES FOR THE YEAR 2009/10

1. The following postings are hereby published for general information and due compliance.

2. All Magistrates are to compile a list of part-heard matters in their Courts and forward same to DCR (Legal) High Court, Ikeja for necessary action.

3. The Magistrates who are yet to go on their Year 2009 annual leave are to liaise with the DCR (Admin.), Ikeja so as to arrange for the persons that would relieve them.

4. This posting takes effect 7 (seven) days after the receipt and acknowledgment on record of this Circular by Magistrates to enable proper compliance with the directive in paragraph 2 above.

HON. JUSTICE (MRS.) I.E. AKANDE

CHIEF JUDGE OF LAGOS STATE

PROPER?: ATTACHED FURNITURE IN USE IN CHIEF JUDGE SECRETARY’S OFFICE

One of the odious practices of the Nigerian police is the wrongful appropriation of the properties of criminal suspects.
When the police swoop on criminal suspects, for good or base reasons, they often impound their chattels like furniture sets, cars, television and radio sets etc and bring same to their stations.
After a time, the impounded chattels are taken away into the various offices in the station and put to use. So one can find a situation where the rug belongs to suspect A, the table is owned by suspect B, the coat hanger, the property of suspect C and the television set is the property of suspect D. It is not uncommon to find impounded vehicles, driven by investigating police officers.

The Squib can however reveal that this abuse of office and powers is not limited to the police. Another important institution in the administration of Justice at least in Lagos State, the Judiciary is involved in similar practice.
In many administrative offices in the judiciary and even in some court rooms, are furniture not owned by the judiciary, but put to use there. These pieces of furniture and even electronic sets are goods seized by the police of the judiciary, to wit the court-bailiffs, otherwise known as bailiffs, during execution of court judgements and brought into the custody of the court.
The attached goods, under the law never become the property of the court but are meant to be sold off to satisfy judgement debits or be redeemed back by their owners upon payments of their judgement debts.
Unfortunately quite a few of such attached goods are converted with impunity, by staffers of the Judiciary, with the obvious knowledge and compromise of the bailiffs themselves.
The use of attached goods in the judiciary, particularly in the high courts is so rampant that such goods are in upon use in the office of the Chief Judge of Lagos State. In the reception of the office of the secretary of the Chief Judge of Lagos State at the Lagos State High Court-Igbosere, are two seats (see cover) part of a set, obviously attached goods, labeled LD/490/05. The (abbreviated) name of the attaching officer ‘sho’ is also stated also.
In some other courts (Hon. Justice Williams, Hon Justice B. Shitta-Bey) are such goods also in use.
Some sources in the judiciary informed the Squib that the unsavory situation arose for two reasons - lack of adequate storage facility in the Lagos State Judiciary for attached goods and inadequate supply of office-furniture and equipment for junior staff of the judiciary said a source-“The focus of government in the judiciary is mainly on judges. They always try to satisfy them but care less for other workers. So we have to find means of looking after ourselves. You need chairs, tables, etc to work in the office, but it is either we don’t have or the ones we have are badly damaged and nobody cares about repairs, so we have to arrange with our friends the bailiffs to help us out”.
Clearly there is no lawful justification for the conversion of attached goods for use in the judiciary. In fact it is another indication of the rot in our institution and our distorted value system as a people. Things have gotten so bad that the public institution of Justice becomes a blatant and shameful misappropriators of goods in her care.
We urge the new authority of the Lagos State Judiciary to take urgent steps to correct the grossly anomalous situation.

HOW SHOULD LAWYERS DRESS?

On 28th September 2009, no less than two hundred lawyers turned up at the Cathedral Church, Marina, Lagos, for the Christian service marking the new Legal Year Day for 2009/2010.

A particular barrister stood out of the lot but for negative reasons. While most of his colleagues at the occasion looked sharp and clean in their suits, Mr. Olusesan Aknalaja (called 1991) cut such an extremely shabby appearance, that he could easily be mistaken for a tramp about loud or an academic who had just embarked on a journey of innocuous insanity.

Akinlaja’s shoes were a pair of black; he of course had no socks on. His trousers a blue khaki jeans no shared no affinity with his jacket and was dirty. But the light blue stripped jacket Akinlaja had on was even dirtier, 'grimy' actually is the word. His shirt had lost its whiteness may be as far back in time as 2007 and his bib, wrinkled and browned as it were, would serve as fair camouflage for an aparo (patridge).

Akinlaja had a bag in his hand; that was about the only neat item on him, but it was simply out of place, being more like a small travel bag or a woman’s hold-all than a male lawyer’s bag.

To complete the story picture Akinlaja presented an unshaven cheeks and chin that sprouted short white hairs.
Indeed Akinlaja was an unsightly figure on the said day but most just kept their thoughts about him to themselves yet this was a legal practitioner, who for the sheer terrible sight he presented on that day, properly deserved a suspension from the profession, except it be proven that he was suffering from insanity!

Concerned members of the legal profession are worried about the slovenness and general inappropriate dressing of many practicing counsel these days.

There are some lady lawyers including magistrates and even judges who, in the course of their jobs practice various forms of undress and imbibe the practice of loud jewelry wearing including leg-chains, heavy multi-coloured face make-up, drop ear-rings, big brooches, punk hair styles, multi-coloured braids, etc.

For the men folk, quite an increasing number are finding it difficult to appear before the court wearing suits and shoes of colour black. Many also find it almost an anathema to sport starched, crisp, all white bibs as they are more at home with dirty, stained, crumpled ungainly bibs, which flop dejectedly on their chests.

Male lawyers, particularly those on the Main-land are more guilty of poor dressing than their female whose fault mainly lie in being unnecessarily and inappropriately showy.

There are many male counsel, whose constant excuse for poor, clients-chasing-appearance is “you know I am not appearing in court today” and they truly believe that is good enough excuse to appear like a palm-wine tapper or a rustic thrift collector, or just a plan old “Lagos stroller.”

This magazine believes a legal practitioner should endeavour to look his best all the time, not only for reasons of personal benefits but as part of the effort to maintain and sustain the high reputation of the legal profession.

We also believe that it is the duty of the seniors and elders in the profession to discourage legal practitioners from indulging in care-less or even worse, care-free dressing which tends to put to ridicule the noble profession.

WHY THEY ARE AFTER ME

Come 29 October 2009, all other things being equal, the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee of the Body of Benchers would sit at their normal venue, the Court of Appeal Headquarters Building, Abuja.
At the sitting of the LPDC a prominent feature is that of Mr. Dele Kelvin Oye, veteran prosecutor for the Nigerian Bar Association. He is well known to the members of the committee their registrars and staff and of course the defendants and their counsel.
A pleasant and ordinarily amiable character, Oye would be seen interacting freely with people wearing a friendly mien even with those facing his prosecutorial harpoons.
Given the deep politics and bitter, even dangerous intrigues that sometimes colour or follow cases before the Committee, Oye’s constant strategy could be likened to that of the proverbial Lagos city rat that eats so much off the sole of slumberer’s foot by blowing cool air gently on the foot before and after every bite! The constant mantra on Mr. Oye’s lip while ‘killing the defendant slowly, as it were is “I am only doing my duty, you know we are all colleagues.”
As things stand now, it is doubtful whether Mr. Oye, a 1989 graduate of the Nigerian Law School, would ever return to his familiar turf of prosecutor before the LPDC.
In late August 2009 in the wake of the recent tsunami, violently rocking the banking industry in the country, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) declared Dele Oye, who also to be the chairman of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce a wanted man, in connection with alleged financial crimes related to Intercontinental Bank.
Geckos informed the Squib that Oye ran into troubled waters with the EFCC, when in the course of investigating the Intercontinental Bank, some companies such as Flotsome, Prisky Gold Nigerian Ltd, Dilvent Int’l Ltd, Marricross and Circular Global had suspicious interactions with the Intercontinental Bank.
The EFCC wasted no time in tracing and finding the supposed Directors of these companies who are lawyers but who turned up at the EFCC to claim that they knew nothing about the companies. All the lawyers happened to be juniors working in Dele Oye chambers.
When their employer was summoned by the EFCC, Oye thought it best to flee instead of honouring the invitation. The EFCC has since sealed up the gentleman’s office in Abuja.
According to our sources, the alleged financial deals of Mr. Dele Oye totalled some 6.5billion naira.
Though on the run, Oye whose disappearance is now frustrating the prosecution of some disciplinary matters before the LPDC, has not been completely incommunicado.
The Squib successfully monitored Dele Oye’s off and on communications with a select few with whom he always pleads his innocence claiming that his travails is due to nothing other than fierce turf-possession politics in the banking industry, with the emergence of Lamido Sanusi as the new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“My indictment is nothing more than politics” he says, from hiding. Some people are however advising that the NBA prosecutor is better served by stepping out to confront the EFCC and his other detractors, with facts and figures of his innocence.
One of these observers told the Squib-“Oye should stop being a fugitive. He should come back home and face his trial like a man, if he indeed is innocent. Nobody proves his innocence by running away from the accusers, rather you suggest that you are guilty as charged. If he is afraid of detention he should know that the court will grant him bail just as they did to the bank executives. In Nigeria when the allegation of fraud against you is very weighty, the courts grant you bail, especially when you are a respectable and prominent individual, And the chairman of the Abuja Chambers of Commerce is prominent enough a person.” He can also be sure that if indeed the EFCC is merely persecuting him, that the NBA whom he has served for so many years would rise to his defence.

THE TRUE AND FULL CAUSE OF GANI'S DEATH

One spectacular event that dominated the air-waves and the press from the first to the third week of September 2009 was the passing away of the legal luminary, author, publisher, philantrophist, and temporary politician Abdula-Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi a.k.a. GANI...

GOVERNMENT DISSOLVES LAGOS JUDICIAL SERVICE COMMISSION.

Certainly the last has not been heard about the efforts of the Lagos State Government to appoint new Judges (about eight in number), even though there is a lull in the activities thereon courtesy of the on-going recess or vacation in the Judiciary, all over the country.
As has been exclusively reported by the Squib, in our two previous editions Vol 9 No 34 and 35 respectively, the chairman of the Lagos State Judicial Service Commission, Mr. Justice Adetula Alabi, who has only a week now to quit office of the honourable Chief Judge of the State by way of retirement, has paraded two lists of short-listed candidates (16 in all) for Judicial appointments in the state whereas the short-list of candidates actually prepared by the LSJSC had only ten candidates on it.
From reliable sources, we had gathered that the 10 man list enlarged to variants of the 16 man list after the sharply unpleasant meeting of the out going Chief Judge and the Governor of the state some weeks ago.
However the latest news related to the issue of judicial appointments in Lagos State, is, wait for it, the dissolution of the Judicial Service Commission of the state.
The dissolution, which is still only known to a few, was unexpected by many of the members, considering the fact that the LJSC can be said to be only mid-way- into their current term of five years.
Even without the disbandment, the current chairman, Alabi C.J. would have gone away nonetheless, once he retires on August 8 2009 from service. Also on her way out was Mrs. Bukola Balogun the Secretary, who was on contract employment with commission.
The full fledged members include Mr. Yomi Okunnu and Mrs. Abimbola Williams S.A.N who had spent like “an eternity” in the commission, having been there for no less than a decade now. The other member, a non-lawyer is one Mr. Ogunbawo.
Why nobody knows precisely the reason for the sack of the Judicial Service Commission, observers tend to believe it is not unconnected with the ‘wrangling’ between the Executive and the authorities of the Lagos State Judiciary on the new would be Judicial appointees. Some others believed that the disbandment was long over-due any way in the light of the presence of certain members who had become like permanent members of the commission and the need to inject new blood with fresher-vision into the commission.
Meanwhile in a rather curious situation, Mrs. Damilola Olanipekun of the daughters of the secretary of the Judicial Service Commission, has more or less surreptiously, become a magistrate in Lagos State.
Damilola a young lawyer in his late twenties, and called to the bar in October 2004 was until very recently a state counsel serving in the Office of the Public Defender of the state.
It is learnt reliably by the Squib that Damilola was appointed a Magistrate on a special Transfer of Services arrangement, placing her on entry into the magistracy on Grade Level 10. Even though sworn in only about two weeks ago, the appointment was said to have been back-dated to April 2009.
From all indications, it appears that Damilola Olanipekun became a magistrate on a “solo appointment” a most unusual situation, if indeed true, as magistrates are appointed together in fairly large numbers in Lagos State, whenever there are vacancies.