NJC probe: Salami dares petitioners

The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, yesterday, exonerated himself of complicity in the alleged indecent telephone calls that culminated to the sack of former governors Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Segun Oni of Osun and Ekiti states respectively, just as he dared his petitioners to go ahead to establish a prima-facie nexus linking him to alleged judicial malpractice.



Salami, who through his counsel, Chief Ricky Tarfa, SAN, expressed worries over what he described as nocturnal moves by his adversaries to blackmail him with fictitious allegations, equally beseeched the Justice Dahiru Musdapher-led five-man probe panel to uncover the persons behind the mysterious call logs that were purportedly recovered from four mobile telecommunication companies in the country by security agencies.

The NJC panel had on May 20, summoned the National Security Adviser, NSA, to appear before it with a view to ascertaining the authenticity of the said mobile lines that were tendered against Justice Salami and six other justices of the appellate court who participated in the 2007 election petition appeal panels that sacked the former governors from office.

The six justices, who the petitioners insisted were enmeshed in the alleged malpractices were, Justices Clara Ogunbiyi, M. L. Garuba, Paul Galinje, C.C Nweze; Adamu Jauro and O. Ariwoola.
Though the panel opted to conduct the trial in camera, reliable sources at yesterday’s proceedings, however, disclosed that the six jurists took turns to align themselves to the submissions of Salami’s counsel, Tarfa, insisting that they were being unnecessarily vilified.

In his testimony beforethe panel, the NSA who was represented by the Director, Lawful Intercept, Mr Ndubuisi Onyia, maintained that not only were the said telephone lines genuine, but that a detailed trend of conversations made through the lines were successfully extracted by telecommunication experts that were engaged by the  NSA.

Though he could not pin-point the owners of the voices recovered from the lines, he, however, told the panel that the NSA had ordered all the affected telecommunication firms to assist the probe panel towards identifying those behind the extracted call logs.

The said call logs which was submitted to the NJC in a memory disc (flash drive), was promptly admitted by the chairman of the probe panel as part of the proof of evidence before it.

Oyinlola and Oni had maintained that Salami and the six other justices, engaged in unethical conversations with some chieftains of ACN which they said resulted to the favourable judgments that the party got in Osun and Ekiti state governorship election appeals.

The petitioners went ahead to tender records of call logs which they claimed was between the accused tribunal judges and the benefiting politicians.

Attempts by the probe panel to get some of the affected telecommunication firms to authenticate the mobile lines used in the said illicit conversations, met brick walls, a situation that led the NJC to summon the NSA to use his statutory powers and verify the veracity of the allegations.

MTN had in its response to a letter of demand that was forwarded to it by the NJC, in April, insisted that it could only re-produce logs of calls made through its network 3-months earlier, (February- April), stressing that all other data disappears from its system after that duration.

The position of the communication firm was however denounced by the PDP Chairman in Osun State, My Ojo Williams, who not only joined in the petition, but equally testified as a witness in the matter.
Williams, while under cross-examination by counsel to the defendants, dismissed the submissions of the telecommunication firm as lies, saying that it was a calculated effort aimed at shielding the accused persons.

Meantime, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, is expected to appear before the panel today for further questioning. The CJN is equally answering to allegations of ‘corruption and judicial recklessness’ that were raised against him by Justice Salami.

He would appear before the panel to conclude his defence having enjoyed the ad-hoc leave of absence that was granted to him sequel to his involvement in a bizarre home accident that claimed the life of his wife, Mrs. Mimi Katsina-Alu on May 9.

Salami had in an affidavit he personally deposed to before a Federal High Court in Abuja, alleged that the CJN pressurized him to compromise standard in the Sokoto State Gubernatorial Election Petition Appeal Tribunal (Appeal Tribunal) that was eventually decided in favour of incumbent Governor Aliyu Wammako amidst judicial controversies.

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