Invasion of Justice Mary Odili’s Residence The Threatening Knell on the Institution of Justice Delivery in Nigeria

Chief Aikhunegbe Anthony Malik, SAN

Friday, 29th October, 2021 was yet another sad turn for the Honourable Justice Mary Peter-Odili, Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and, in fact, the next in rank of seniority to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, to taste the odious pill of impunity – the ugly reality of a value-subtraction component of the directive policy currently in vogue in the present-day governance system in Nigeria.

It Happened in 2020

The event of that day was, of course, not the first of such infamy in the career of the Honourable Justice Odili since her elevation to the Supreme Court Bench. Sometime in February, 2020, following the decision of the Apex Court in respect of the last Bayelsa State Governorship Elections, armed thugs shamelessly caused a breach of peace at the residence of the revered Justice, thereby subjecting her entire household to monumental intimidation, over an ostensibly and whimsically perceived influence on her brother Justices who sat on the Panel which decided the matter in favour of the opposition party, PDP. Expectedly, accusing fingers were pointed by the two contending political parties at each other, for being the masterminds of the infamy. Curiously, however, no arrest was made by the Police or other security agencies, neither did the very institution where His Lordship is a critical part of, the Supreme Court, issue any important statement in condemnation of the attack. Accordingly, therefore, the uniqueness of this latest invasion of and breach of peace of His Lordship’s residence, is that it was the second time within two years that the His Lordship was having her turn.

Buoyed by the initial “successful” invasion as aforesaid of her residence in February 2020, with no strong reactions from who ought to have cared enough to do so, it became therefore attractive for either the initiators of the first invasion or another who had stood by and learnt the ropes, to up the game to another level of impunity through the machinery of the very judicial system, this time round. Now, while many had said the invasion of February, 2020 was ostensibly, albeit, whimsically, for her perceived influence on the judgement of the Supreme Court in favour of a PDP candidate believed to be her favoured party, by reason of her husband’s political antecedents, one is still at a loss as to which cause or reason to tie the latest invasion.

Denials

Despite the apparent imprints of the invasionary and gestapo tactics of the nation’s security agencies, they have all come out to deny knowledge of, and or involvement in the invasion. What is however, not in doubt, is that the invasion was carried out on the strength of an enrolled order of a Chief Magistrate Court in the FCT. And, even the regular Nigeria Police [the poster boy of executive delinquency], where the initiator of the judicial process of application for the search warrant, CSP Lawrence Ajodo, is enlisted, has also joined in the denial train. Not to be outdone, the nation’s Chief Law Officer, the Attorney-General of the Federation, has equally denied knowledge of the order obtained by an amorphous body called “Joint Panel Recovery”, said to be a unit warehoused in his office. Nigeria and Nigerians are thus, foisted with a jolly good ‘whodunit’ game?

The Magistrate and the Deponent

In the wake of strident public outcry against the outlawry, the Chief Magistrate of the FCT sitting at Wuse Zone 6, Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna, who issued the search warrant, withdrew into the comfort of his chambers, and in the same manner in which the very order was first made, churned out another counter-order, revoking the earlier one on the usual portmanteau excuse that he was misled into granting the earlier order. Available records in the public domain, shows that one CSP Lawrence Ajodo who held out himself as being part of and acting at the behest of the “Joint Assets Recovery Panel” domiciled in the Attorney-General’s Office, applied for and obtained the search warrant on the strength of materials supplied in an affidavit deposed to by a certain whistle blower, one Aliyu Ibrahim who, from his own showing, resides somewhere in Niger State, but with the capacity to magically observe “illegal activities going on in some houses within Abuja and its environs”. In his affidavit, the deponent stated inter alia thus:

“That I am sure and convinced that the kind of activities going on in those houses within Abuja is illegal and hereby report the said matter to the law enforcement agency.
That I hereby state that all information provided by me to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are true and correct to the best of my knowledge”.
Critically, the identification document of the Applicant Police officer is attached to the application to show his the identity. It, therefore, beats one hollow seeing that all those who ought to know and own up to the infamy, could afford to unabashedly continue in their denials of the obvious truth as to who carried out or was responsible the infamous invasion.

Etiquette and Decorum: The Judiciary’s Failure to Assert Itself

Now, while the above attempts to answer the whodunit, the “why” bit of the invasion will be answered in multi prongs, it is noted that the Judiciary for far too long, has failed to recreate itself from the age-long orthodoxy of playing dumb and undue taciturnity associated with judicial officers. While one does not advocate that judicial officers should abandon the cherished etiquette and decorum of the legal profession, it appears the institution of the Judiciary, as the third arm of Government, has not adequately asserted itself in the protection of that etiquette and decorum, the defining parameters of its being, through the use of the very instrument of law.
For too long, the Nigerian Judiciary has existed in a cocoon of paradoxes. Despite its expertise in the interpretation of the law and conflict resolution, it has struggled to wriggle itself out of the recurring and serial conflictual situations of wanton desecration of its values. This is obviously so, because it has not been able to rise to the occasion in recent times, with the very instrument of law, to the many darts being wantonly thrown at it. If it is not one head of the Executive in the existing tiers of Government promising independence, it will be another apparatus of the sister arm of Government resisting, refusing or thinking nothing of the orders and judgements handed down by the courts.

Enabling Role of the Judiciary Itself: Lufadeju v Johnson

The worrisome aspect of this judicial conundrum, is the enabling role that the Judiciary itself plays against itself. It is regrettable that the entire judicial activities are either characterised, for the most part, in the courts playing one complicitious role or the other with the other arms of Government. Indeed, the fate of the Judiciary as typified in the recent invasion of and assault on the home of Justice Mary Odili, is only but a little drop from the mighty overhead ocean of enabling situations of judicial paradoxes.

Not too long ago, the legal community, nay the world, waited with bated breath, to see what the Apex Court would do when the Suit which challenged the unconstitutional removal from office of the Honourable Justice Walter Onnoghen as the Chief Justice of Nigeria by dint of a curious ex parte order of an inferior tribunal, came before it. For inexplicable reasons, the court chose not a frontal determination of the gravamen of the case, but through the easy backdoor of lack of locus, robed itself the opportunity to frontally smother the wrong which is gradually chipping away its very being. As if that was not bad enough, in February, 2020, when Justice Mary Odili had her first baptism of invasion at her residence, quiescent silence was the attitude from the Supreme Court. The culprits in the extant invasion, may have been emboldened to even recruit the very institution of the Judiciary at the lower wrung of the Magistracy to up the infamy of another invasion.

Indeed, for far too long, the Supreme Court has looked away from the clear abuse of the powers of the Magistrates to make arrest or search orders. More worrisome is the attitude of the Apex Court in cases that have come before them, where the powers of the Magistrates to make these arrest or search orders even in subject-matters or areas that are clearly outside their remit or jurisdiction.

Legal Practitioners are still in shock that the Apex Court frittered away the opportunity that was presented it in LUFADEJU v JOHNSON (2007) 8 NWLR (PT 1037) 535, to pronounce against such obvious constitutional outlawry of gross infraction of the fundamental right of fair hearing as guaranteed under and by virtue of Section 36 of the Constitution. Curiously, the court rather gave judicial fillip to the obvious unconstitutional practice of Magistrates issuing remand orders in respect of matters outside their jurisdictional competence. Unfortunately, this decision and other along this line, are often cited by the prosecuting authorities and Magistrates to justify their actions and judicial outlawry.

Emboldened by the imprimatur accorded this practice by the Supreme Court in the Lufadeju case, the Magistrates, in collusion with mischievous security agents and law enforcement officers, now issue pre-signed orders to the security agents, who merely date and insert relevant contents against potential victims on a need basis. A calm review of the search order/warrant granted by Chief Magistrate Iyanna in the instant case, will inexorably point to an uncanny reflection of this disturbing trend. A cursory perusal of the order of the Magistrate, will expose clearly his complicity in issuing out a pre-signed order. Of particular importance in this case, is the subsequent revocation of the order by the same Magistrate on the ground that facts were misrepresented to him. Shorn of any unhelpful embroidery, the revocation or vacation of the order by the Magistrate, suo motu, apart from being suspect, constitutes, in my view, a cheap damage control.

Conclusion

Now that the chicken has come home to roost from the far flung free range it had gone, the Supreme Court, as the apex court with superior power to review the decisions of other courts in the hierarchy, may necessarily have to take a hard look at the seeming omnipotence of the powers of the Magistrates to grant remand orders and search warrants, particularly in matters over which they have no jurisdiction. It is the hope of this writer that, in the nearest future, their Lordships of the Supreme Court will rise to the occasion and do the needful, whenever the opportunity is presented to them to pronounce on this issue. Undoubtedly, the Apex Court holds the key to saving the Judiciary, from the sustained assaults and unwarranted attacks it has been subjected to lately. There is no better time than now for the Judiciary to recreate itself from the unhelpful orthodoxy of dumbness in the face of existential attacks by other arms, organs and agents of Government with contrary interests to serve.

Chief Aikhunegbe Anthony Malik, SAN, Constitutional Lawyer, Abuja