By Austin Ogwuda
Ojukwu’s Lawyer blasts Judiciary over Presidential Poll verdict, says “I see no hope at the Supreme Court”…. final outcome will determine Nigeria’s future
Lawyer to late Biafran leader, Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Barrister James Chukwunenye Ezike says the Judiciary has failed Nigerians, noting that proceeding further with the presidential poll legal tussle up to Supreme Court may be just mere waste of time.
He dropped this bombshell during the Arise Television program, tagged, ‘The Morning Show’, monitored by The Town Hall Media, today, Thursday.
Ezike was a guest at the programme alongside with another lawyer, former member of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council, Barrister Jesutega Onokpasa who joined virtually.
The parley was so engaging and almost turned into a rowdy session when Onokpasa carpeted Ezike for rubbishing the Bench on a national television.
It got heated up to a point when one of the anchors, Ruffai demanded that Onokpasa should withdraw his statement to wit: “if he (Ezike) was that good as a lawyer why was he not considered as a Supreme Court Judge”.
But Onokpasa stood his ground and bluntly refused to take back that cynical remark.
Ezike, when asked by Reuben Abati, who is also a lawyer if he was aware that by his statement that he was impugning the intergrity of Supreme Court Justices, he said he was quite aware.
Reuben: Are you impugning the intergrity of the Supreme Court as presently composed?
Ezike: Yes I am. I know the risk I am taking but it is more important that we are safe and free in this country than for me to flatter them (Judges).
“And for your information I have one or two of them I call my friends, yes, but is the level of jurisprudence I said, is the problem.
“The future of this election (presidential) will actually determine the future of Nigeria because this is the first time I noticed that the young people were enthused.
“This”, he went on, “was after the Toll Gate thing and if anybody doesn’t understand history then… I think I will recuse myself if I were a Judge. If you understand history you should know where these things are going and that your name will be there when the history is made.The history of this country, its survival or otherwise depends on this election”, he harped.
On Niki Tobi JSC (as he was then was) in Atiku Abubakar vs Musa Yar’Adua (2008) NWLR which held thus “courts of Law do not give judgment according to public opinion…”, Ezike told the audience that ” talking about public opinion like my friend, he was very close to me, Niki Tobi.
“Well, that doesn’t apply that is when jurisprudence comes in. It does not apply to elections.
“If the public opinion is that Atiku won or that Peter Obi won; then the result is different why should you ignore it?”
“If they are talking about interpretation of the laws, interpretation of documents, that is a different thing, the rules are there.
“Invariably, if the interpretation is contrary to the normal person will say, reasonable person will say there’s something wrong with that interpretation”.
Asked if the next option of approaching the Supreme Court can be explored, Barrister Ezike said, “I don’t see any hope going to the Supreme Court. It will be a pleasant miracle if there is a change because the Judges who are in the Supreme Court, most of them are not the Oputas, there are not Justice Oshos who will look at it and interpret it properly”.
He frowned at the voyage undertook by the petitioners, assembling evidences on Tinubu purported conviction, NYSC and so forth those technicalities they were bothered about.Was Kwame Nkrumah not in prison and won election?
“What Tinubu should be blamed for was not taking part in Presidential debate so that people can see him and ask him questions.
“For me, the Third Estate of the Realm, Judiciary has failed. I know the consequence, to me as a Lawyer, I go to court regularly but it has come to delivering for the people.
“If you deliver a good judgment like the one delivered on Nnamdi Kanu the Judges who did it their names will be in International Law”, he added.
He concluded by saying that “what makes a country survive is the Judiciary, the rule of Law. We don’t seem to know it. For instance who is going to invest in a country like this if you win a case all the other side had to do is to keep delaying it, the Court does nothing on it.In other places there will be punitive damages running into billions for the delay. “Therefore, when you are investing in a country you will know that when you win that you will be adequately compensated”, he stated.
Ezike, apart from being a member of the Nigerian Bar Association NBA, he is also a member of American Society of International Law.
