DO JUDGES REALLY NEED POLICE ORDERLIES?

A group of five lawyers, who regularly stroll down after-hours to a ‘drinking joint’ from their respective offices, to ‘unwind’ met at their usual spot last Friday. The following is a part of their conversion:

JOHN: (a rotund, normally cheerful fellow) “This country, I tell you, is something else. In fact I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard the news.
JELILI: (a very dark skinned fellow from Kogi State) “What news is that? Could it be abour the removal of police orderlies from High Court judges and magistrates?
JOHN:- Yes, that is it? Can you believe that?
CHUKS: (a tall and heavily bearded fellow who had made it known for ages that he was an incurable pessimist, at least when it comes to matters pertaining to Nigeria’s progress) ‘But are you surprised? Why should any one be? Or are we no longer in Nigeria. But sensible has always been senseless here and senseless, sensible
AJUMA: (the revolutionary of the group, who despite his successful law practice which grosses him more than thirty million naira annually, refuses, fails and neglects to abandon the socialist beliefs that he embraced almost two decades ago.) It is another proof that for a psendo-capitalist state, Nigeria’s comprador class and Western Satelite government is the silliest ever”.
SHETTY: (a Kanuri, (real name, Shettima) And who for his being born, bread and buttered in Lagos, liked to call himself a ‘Yonuri (Yoruba and Kanuri). “Hmn, this beer is especially nice this evening. When are they bringing the isi-ewu now? Or they want me to waste this beer?
JOHN: (laughing loudly) Haba Shetty, beer and isi-ewu is nothing compared to the issue at hand.
SHETTY: You are not serious. So because you guys are worried about the small matter of withdrawal of police orderlies from judges and magistrates, a man should not enjoy his evening.
JOHN and JELILI: (together) Small matter? We are talking of the security of judges here, friend.
CHUKS: Sips a gin laced tonic water before whistling a doleful time of Nigeria, e go better. E go better.
AJUMA: Can any one tell me how Nigeria can ever get better, when ever the manager’s of the post-colonial state not only hate the masses but are foolish enough to open delicate ranks of their elitist formations to avoidable dangers of course we know that judges being senior minions of law and order, which upholds the political establishment, are pillars of the exploitative dominant class of bourgeois oppressions.
SHETTY: (hastily downing his cup shouted) “Binukonu nonsense.
JETTY: (turning to Shetty) Are you drink nonsense already?
SHETTY: It is not just nonsense, but letter nonsense. Instead of you guys putting on your thinking caps and appreciating the profundity and social progressiveness of the policy of government you are busy here diluting your beer and enjoyment liberally with unfounded lamentation.
JOHN: Whaat? Mi o gboyinbo (Do I get you right?)
JELILI: (turning to Chuks and Shetty) “Lets get him out of here. Our man is drunk.
JOHN: You know Shetty is a rascal. He’s probably pulling our legs.
SHETTY: I am not joking. But you may take it as you like it. By the way, mmm, this isi-ewu is not bat at all. Chuks, should I give you the eye-balls?
CHUKS: Thanks, but you can keep your eye-balls to yourself. But I really like to know why you see nothing wrong in the government’s new policy of withdrawing police from judges. I thought the dements of the policy are plain and obvious. And to think that of us including even Ajuma except you are al agreed that it is wrong more by government
JELILI: In fact the president of the bar, said it is a thoughtless policy.
AJUMA: But that’s thoughtless of the NBA president to have said. Of course I agree with his conclusion that the policy well from the perspective of maintaining the status quo, derogates from that. But it is not a thoughtless policy. Empiriasm does not and cannot support such a patently facile conclusion. In fact from the news, it is clean the policy was adopted by the Federal Executive Council, the highest formal decision making of the federal government, so much thought, went into the making and adoption of the policy. So the problem was not the want of thought, but the want of quality of thought.
JOHN: (smiling broadly and grinning infectiously) Ajums! Ajums! Oyinbo po (too much ‘grammar’). I think this is going to be a very lovely evening
CHUKS: Shetty I am still waiting for you. Why do you say the policy is good?
SHETTY: Good? Not just good. Fantastic.
JOHN: (slightly irritated) What is fantastic about the stupid policy? Let’s hear you.
SHETTY: (after a loud, cheerful and full bodied burp) Excuse me gentlemen. But let’s do it this way, give me your reasons for being against the policy and I will give you my counter arguments
CHUKS: A judge without security is just a sitting duck. Such a judge is unnecessarily exposed to intimidation and real fear of attack in adjudication of certain cases. And only a few will not succum for fear for the safety of themselves and their families.
SHETTY: (grandly) Any more?
CHUKS: That basically all. You don’t need to call a whole village of witnesses to establish a valid point.
JOHN: (grinning even more excitedly) Splendid! Who is man enough to take on Shetty, the lone ranger!
CHUKS: There is only one base reason. The policy if executed will compromise the security of judges and indirectly undermine the administration of justice in the country.
SHETTY: I am sorry but may I quickly ask you to explain further?
CHUKS: Thank you. If police Orderlies are withdrawn from judges then judges will have no security again. They are thus exposed to dangers of physical attack.
AJUMA: We have heard the thesis, let’s now hear the anti-thesis.
SHETTY: I have many reasons why I agree with the policy First I want to say that judges generally as a class of people or professionals, are not one of those I will call professionals in the high-risk category, despite popular opinion to the contrary. The professionals in the high risk categories are politicians, Business-men and women, journalist, security agents and tertiary institutions lecturer. The truth is that there are very few cases of judges and magistrates suffering physical attacks, talkless of being attacked because they are doing their job.
JELILI: That’s so because all along, judges have always had police orderlies
JOHN: (hastily) Don’t interrupt Shetty. I am the moderator here.
SHETTY: It is not the police orderlies that have prevented attack on judges. Politicians, especially high political office holders have police orderlies too, yet they suffer attacks regularly. So it is not the presence of the solitary police orderlies attach to the individual judges that have prevented attacks on judges. The reason for that is because traditionally people have a lot of respect for judicial institutions and law enforcement agencies and agents. But if any one insists that judges must have police orderlies to ensure their safety, then we should be prepared to assign orderlies to bankers, businessmen, journalists and teachers, who are even much more prone to attacks than judges and magistrates mind you, Nigeria is a republic and we should try as much as possible to promote equality and fairness amongst equality and fairness amongst all men
AJUMA: Wonders shall never end. See a comprador talking like a comrade!
CHUKS: Are you saying that judges are folks like any other?
JOHN: Will you guys shut up? Stop interrupting Shetty
SHETTY: (taking some sips of his drink) Of course judges are important. But us their work more valuable than the finance and business people. Are they greater than teachers, the source of knowledge or more valuable than journalist, the owners of the fourth estate of the republic and vital cheek on the madness of government?
JOHN: Shetty, don’t digress, continue making your point
SHETTY: Bless you, Mr. Moderator. I have always been of the opinion that a community should prefer corporate security as a policy than striving towards the protection of key individual, no matter who he is should be dependent on the safety and well being of the whole and not the other way round.
If our society is safe, so much for everybody barber or bishop, judge or janitor doctor or dancer, lawyer or labourer lets get real here how many judges are ever in any real danger, caused by the circumstances of their jobs. Few, you will agree with me-may be those ones handling narcotics, terrorism and fraud/corruption cases. Generally this is still a safe, almost innocent country, in terms of security concerns, compared with some other countries.
In consequence, the provision of security personnel for judges and magistrates for the most time is merely cosmetic and symbolic.
Government usually give only one security detail to a judge. Ask yourself in a security risk situation, how effect we is a single detail? Not very effective, I tell you, since assculants often attack in groups, with minimum of two.
CHUKS: Don’t you know that provisions of the police orderlies to judges enhance the authority of judges as judicial offers?
AJUMA: I don’t agree with that point, Chuks. Only a Monarchist and a reactionary interested in preserving and enjoying the unequal privileges of the dominant class can advance such an argument. Its another way for saying the importance of a royal is enhanced by the arrays of courtiers about him. Remember Chuks, this is a republic!
SHETTY: God bless you Ajuma. The importance of a judge should not be tied to the company of security in his presence. Otherwise you’ve reduced or even diverted the significance of security to a matter of status symbol, an indication of a judge’s so called “big-manisin”.
Unfortunately one of the reasons why some people wanted to become judges was as mundane as having a security detail follow them about in public.
Infact as I see it any sensible judge will know that even battalion of police, soldiers, ‘plus including’ Navy, Airforce etc cannot guarantee his security. A better guarantee is dedication to work, honesty and fairness Any other security form is a mirage.
At any rate as I have pointed out, Nigeria is still relatively speaking, a safe country. Nigeria is no Colombia or Italy or Spain etc where judges are kidnapped, killed and maimed for one reason or the other.
In fact government should be appreciated and commended for trying to remind our people that Nigeria is not as unsafe as some outsiders like to believe. Indeed many of the security details posted to judges as orderlies do pretty little security work. Many of them are just glorified houseboys, messengers and unofficial personal assistants of these judges.
Let them go back to their stations and beats where they are more needed and where they would be more useful in providing corporate security for all. My prayer is that government will not succumb to the pressure and blackmail of those of you who want police-men to follow judges about.
JELILI: But you have to admit Shetty, an unprotected judge is liable to attack. That’s why a judge, recently refused to hear a particular criminal case because he had no police security
SHETTY: If you ask me, that judge is not serious. When he took up appointment as a judge and took oath to do his job without fear or favour, was with the provision that “when security is provided”? if the judge is complaining of lack of security and the security is provided, will she agree that prosecution of the matter should not commence until police security is thrown around the prosecutors?
Or is that judge saying, before becoming a judge, he never took up any hazardous case(s) was he going about with security details then? In all the recent difficult political and anti-corruption cases, which security details did government provide for lawyers prosecuting these cases?
I rest my case and conclude that people are just making a mountain out of a molehill and crying wolf where there is but just a small rat, when they say that government should withdraw police orderlies from judges. Mind you, government is not removing orderlies from the court-rooms. So why all this fuss?

AKANDE IN ROAD CRASH TRAGEDY

“There, is, so says the scriptures but a step between life and death.” The truism of this statement was keenly brought to His Lordship, Inumidun Akande J of the Lagos State High Court, some days ago, albeit in tragic circumstances.
The Squib has gathered that but for the especial grace of the Almighty, Akande J tipped already as the successor to Alabi J. the embattled, out-going Chief Judge of Lagos State would not have lived beyond 14th April 2009.
According to our geckos, earlier in the morning of the said day, the honourable judge traveled up to Ilorin, Kwara State to attend the wedding ceremony of one of the children of a brother judge, Isa Salami J.C.A.
Akande J was said to be at her usual lively self at the occasion but danger was not far away. It was on the return journey that the unexpected happened as his Lordship’s car got involved in a terrible accident.
After the crash, all the three occupants to wit- Justice Akande, her driver and her police orderly despite their various injuries appeared to have survived the worst. In fact the orderly, probably because of his security training and background was the most coordinated as he was putting calls to people via his GSM phone, alerting them of the disaster and organizing the rescue.
Suddenly, as the Squib very reliably learnt, the gallant cop, very much beloved by his boss for his dedication to duty, slumped and within minutes gave up the ghost, before help could come.
All through last week, the news of the mis-hap was a closely guided secret. In her court, the judges’ aides explained away her absence from work as due to “casual leave.” It is believed that the honourable judge is using the period of the casual leave to look after her physical and emotional well-being.
The Squib prays for the speedy and full recovery of both Justice Akande and her ladyship’s driver. We further pray that the soul of the departed police orderly rest in peace.

NBA PROBES FORMER LEADERS OVER CONFERENCE ACCOUNTS

1st Counsel: (waving a bound document excitedly to two colleagues of his). Have you seen this?

2nd Counsel: Oh, is that not the Income and Expenditure Accounts for 2008 Annual Bar Conference?

1st Counsel: Oh yes you are right. I’m talking of the one prepared by the accountancy firm of ADE, ADEBAMBO ADELALU & Co

3rd Counsel: You seem excited, even agitated, anything wrong with the report?
1st Counsel: (Hotly) A lot is very wrong with it. In fact God will judge accountants very severely.
3rd Counsel: What happened? Are you saying their report is fishy.
2nd Counsel: Even if you don’t like the word fishy, the truth is that it is a report not acceptable to many lawyers. You see at the last National Executive Council meeting of the NBA, at Oshogbo the report was rejected
1st Counsel: Yes, he is right. The report which I personally consider stupid and a cover-up of the shenanigans of the organisers of the horrible 2008 conference of the NBA in Abuja was rejected.
3rd Counsel: That’s not the information I gathered about the report. Some lawyers who attended the Osogbo NEC meeting told me that the auditor’s report prepared by ADE, ADEBAMBO ADELALU & Co sailed through.
2nd Counsel: They have misinformed you. If the report sailed through, why did the NBA set up another committee headed by Mrs. Offiah S.A.N to probe the conference accounts?
1st Counsel: (to the 3rd counsel). Have you gone through the report?
3rd Counsel: Yes I have read it
2nd Counsel: And what do you think of it?
3rd Counsel: So, so
1st Counsel: What do you mean by that?
3rd Counsel: I mean that it is okay. It appears fair.
2nd Counsel: (dumb-founded). Yee pa! That report is okay?

1st Counsel: Let me ask you just one question. Please, one question
3rd Counsel: I am here
1st Counsel: Did you attend the 2008 Annual Bar Conference.
3rd Counsel: No, I was bereaved that time.
2nd Counsel: One can forgive you. If your had come for the conference, you cannot in good conscience accept this report as being fair and okay.
3rd Counsel: How do you mean?
1st Counsel: So many things are wrong and questionable in the report.

Look at conference bags and branding for example. Can you imagine they say they paid 20 million naira for 8,000 bags. That means each bag cost 2,500:00. They branded the bags for 1 million naira, that is at the cost of N 250:00 per one. This cannot be acceptable.
Not only is that the quality of the bags supplied is very poor, the most somebody will buy one in the open market cannot be more than N1,250:00 naira. Also the number of conferees who actually got those conference bags could not more than one or two thousand at most. In fact the auditors themselves wrote in their report that “the number of bags supplied cannot be ascertained”. Then talking of the cost of branding, how can you do that for N250:00 per piece? It is simply outrageous. For such a huge number, the cost at the very most cannot be more than N50:00 per piece.

2nd Counsel: See how much they claimed they spent on accommodation. A whopping N18,452,298 million. I understand the accommodation was only for Executive Members and Members of the Conference Planning Committee. So NBA leadership is luxurious living.
3rd Counsel: That may be so. But surely you can’t claim that they inflated the cost of hotel accommodation.
1st Counsel: Don’t be too sure my friend. But even if it is not inflated, why should the NBA leaders stay in five-star hotels for the conference at the expense of the bar? Remember most of the members from whose pocket the treasury of the NBA is filled stayed in two star hotels during the conference.
2nd Counsel: Look at the security expenses heading. According to these people, they spent almost two million naira on security. Can you believe that? Are there receipts for this? Look at the Annual Bar Dinner heading. Just for buffet menu and drinks at Sheraton Hotel for one night, they claimed they spent five million, six hundred thousand naira. Remember that this event was restricted to a select few and not to the generality of the conferees. Look at item 4 on that heading, here they said the local organizing committee alone spent seven million and two hundred thousand naira on food and drinks. How many are the members of this LOC who were spending an average of one million per day, on food and drinks alone? Were they feeding on caviars and N50,000 per bottle wines and water?
1st Counsel: There are many questionable figures in that report, to make one sick, even mad. How can any reasonable auditor declare that the figures are okay and reasonable? Look at the Technical Committee Expenses Heading. Just for traveling expenses to Abuja and Lagos meetings and refreshments, that Committee allegedly spent five million naira, less a hundred thousand naira. Their flights are local flights, remember. And how many are the members of this technical committee and how many meeting did they attend? Look at the Election Materials heading. They claimed they spent two million naira to produce ballot papers. Ah, cry the beloved country. How many people participated in the election, which was even a delegates’ election. All the voters were not up to two thousand people. How many ballot papers were actually printed? If the number is 2000, that means each ballot paper cost N1000:00 each! And if up to five thousand, that means, each ballot paper is N400:00! Isn’t this fantastic? Can you believe this? Okay, look at the production of conference documents and stationeries supplied heading. According to the report, ten thousand copies each of seven different documents were printed at the cost of seven million naira. There are many questions begging for answers. First, why produce ten thousand copies of documents, when you ordered for only eighty thousand conference bags? Two, where are the conference materials? Only very few conferees got conference materials and hardly the full compliment.

3rd Counsel: (Sighed deeply) Hmmmmph!

1st Counsel: To say the least, the audit report is unsatisfactory. There are many sore thumbs sticking out in that report. I am sure the Offiah Committee will do a thorough job in the discharge of their duties.

2nd Counsel: I pray they do a good job. It is pathetic that on a conference the organizers claimed to have spent almost one hundred and sixty million naira, ninety-nine percent of attendees suffered great hardships and deprivations, so much so, that the popular opinion was that the conference was the worst ever in the history of the NBA. I think the leaders of the NBA then, particularly Olisa Agbakoba and Rafiu Lawal-Rabana, President and Secretary respectively, who allegedly excluded other executive members of the National Committee in the control and organization of the conference, should be ashamed of themselves.

3rd Counsel: In my opinion, the best thing to do is to await the findings of the Offiah Committee

1st Counsel: Sure we’ll wait. But I tell you nobody who paid for the 2008 conference and suffered the way we did, during the conference cannot have good opinion about the managerial competence and integrity of those men. Whether you like it or not, the truth is that the setting up of the Offiah Committee by the NEC of the NBA is already an indictment of their integrity.

3rd Counsel: Were the two of them, Agbakoba and Lawal-Rabana at the Osogbo NEC?

1st Counsel: Lawal Rabana was there. He tried to defend some positions but even the mosquitoes around were not impressed. As for Agbakoba, the stranger who became king, he did not come. In fact since he handed over to Akeredolu the new President, the stranger has not attended any NBA function. And I am sure he will not attend the next NEC meeting taking place in Sokoto in May 2009.

OPEN LETTER TO MR. TUNJI AYANLAJA SAN "PLEASE PUT AN END TO THIS EYESORE"

Dear Mr. Ayanlaja,

E karo sir. I decided to blow the trumpet of my pen in the direction of your ears on a matter, which in my humble, squibish opinion is of great public concern, because you are involved.
The matter is none other than the criminal case of the Federal Republic of Nigeria against a number of individuals including Commodore, now Chief Olabode George. These individuals as you well know are facing sundry charges of corruption and abuse of public office before an Ikeja High Court.
In Nigerian parlance the case is a “big case”. A case is said to big either by the “enormity” of the alleged crime or and the high profile of the alleged offenders.
No doubt in this case, quite a hefty amount of public is alleged by the prosecution to have been ‘swallowed’ by the Chief George and his co-travellers.
I may not know those other accused persons (I guess they are big shots too) but I cannot say that of Chief Olabode George.
If I am right, the Chief first came to national lime-light when he was appointed the military administrator of Ondo State some two decades ago. When his appointment ended news had it that Commodore George declared concerning his legacy in the pounded yam and lokili state that “I wanted people to know that a Lagos boy passed through here”
Chief George’s star shone even brighter with the advent of the post (General Sani) Abacha constitutional democracy and party politics. The Chief found himself in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and soon became a prominent national leader of the party in the form, name and weight of a National Vice-Chairman. When the PDP, derisively referred to by the late Esa-Oke caustic tongue, Bola “cicero” Ige as Pindipi, came to power in 1999 to form the government, a grateful party appreciative of Chief George’s administrative genius allocated to him the governance of the Nigerian Ports Authority.
The case against him now in the court of honourable Justice Olubunmi Oyewole is that the Chief appropriated public funds as the head of the certainly wet NPA.
One is not concerned here with the merits or otherwise of the allegations against Chief Olabode George, your client and the other gentlemen accused. That’s the judicial “headache” of the presiding judge.
At any rate, I have been reliably informed that in the battle before Oyewole J, your side is not doing badly at all. I was made to understand by some of those who have been following the case closely that you in particular, and in favour of Chief George, have been systematically, even sensationally, pulling down the ramparts of the prosecution’s case by the battering-ram power of your skillful and painstaking cross-examination.
What is of great interest and urgent concern to me about the case in which you are the star defence counsel is the regular presence of an army of gaily and colourfully dressed people, a large majority of whom are women, who storm the court on any hearing date.
These women and the men are said to by party members of the PDP an are supporters of Chief George whom they have come to give moral support.
This army of Georgitas when they come, they come in the manner of a swarm of colourful butterflies. Easily noticeable by their geles and aso-ebi uniforms they take over Justice Oyewole’s court and spill outside even reaching up to the Chief Judge garage! Seeing them in their numbers, and dressed glamorously and flamboyantly as they appear, an innocent by stander or passers-by may be forgiven to mistake them for participants in an owanbe party thrown by a “money-miss-road drug baron celebrating the “transmission to glory” of his late beloved mother who had died a quarter of a century earlier!
Sir last week Thursday, I had the opportunity of looking more closely at these Georgitas, since I had a case too before his Lordship Oyewole j on that very day. As early as 8:30a.m these women had arrived to the Ikeja High Court. Some of them took vantage positions in the court, particularly the back seats.
Those who occupied space outside the courtroom were in a large stretch, all over the grounds, merely chatting. The vast majority were dressed in blue headgears and gold coloured aso-ebi. The others sat, backing the nearby open Registry of the High court decked in red gele and green iro and buba aso-ebi.
I may be wrong but it appears that these women and their male colleagues were either merely a rented crowd to give questionable support to a politician on trial or a group of either unemployed or unemployable grown-ups who decide to frolic to the court-house for some stipends.
Now assuming that the Georgitas were no rented crowd and had come sincerely to give moral support to Chief George, why turn out in a colourful owanbe fashion? The question one may ask is what are these women celebrating? Or what event or occasion are they marking? The trial of Chief Olabode George?
Nobody or at least no reasonable or responsible person celebrates the trial of a loved one. If the allegations against the accused are false, and trumped up what is there to celebrate? And if they are true, what too is there to celebrate?
All over the world, especially in the free societies, trials of political figures, especially those seen as being controversial or persecuted attract the presence of their loyalists.
But these loyalists display sobriety and exhibit their displeasure by way of symbols, messages and placards. But what do we make of people who turn trials to carnivals and theatres of merry-making, in the very grounds of the trial courts as the Georgitas and their male colleagues have been doing?
I must tell you sir, that the general impression people have about these Georgitas is not positive. I have heard people calling them prostitutes, jobless lay-abouts, parasites and such uncomplimentary terms, who on each trial day of the case, pollute the sober atmosphere of the court with their gaudy appearances and bawdy manners.
Yet it can be commended on their behalf that the courts are a public place and court-trials ordinarily under our constitution should hold in public and that as such people have a right to come to the courts to watch proceedings. It can also be further commended on the Georgitas’ behalf that citizens of this country have the constitutional right of freedom of association and free assembly where no crime is planned or committed.
Let us quickly however remind ours of the scriptural exhortation of St Paul – “All things may be lawful but not all things are expedient”
In my humble opinion, these women are not adding mileage to the character and reputation of your client, Chief Olabode George. They may be looking at themselves with approbation but the public looks upon them with sorrow. The impression their extravagant but absurd appearance give to the public is that they are lap-dogs sustained on a diet of crumbs that drop from rich but ill-gotten provisions. They are, frankly speaking, nothing but an eye-sore and of no value at all, to the proceedings before the court.
Sir, I’m sure the sea of ‘owanbe headgears of these pindipi women cannot be part of your formidable advocacy arsenal and I doubt whether they can even to the slightest degree,, turn the solid head of the presiding judge in the direction of undue sympathy for your client’s case.
It is of utmost importance, for the preservation of the sacredness and solemnity of the judicial institutions that the misnorner and absurd presence of the Georgitas be stopped immediately.
And nobody is in any better position to do this, than your good and honourable self. While the court may take the prudent position of closing its eye to the eyesore of the Georgitas, the prosecution may be in an awkward position to raise the issue, since they could be liable to strident attacks of harassing the supporters of the accused persons.
You and indeed the entire defence team have no such constraints. Of course, sir, you are the most eminent and senior of the lawyers for the defence in this case and certainly have the status to speak home-truths to your clients.
I know when you tell your clients, including Chief Olabode George that it is wrong and an insidious subversion of the dignity and honour of the court to turn the spectation of a criminal trial for corrupt practices into a jamboree-like setting and occasion, consequently trivialising the criminal adjudication of such a grievous allegation, they will listen.
Let them know, if they don’t know already, that criminal trials of notable people in society is simply just that and not a popularly test, where the vindication of an accused would rest on his popularity. For what does it matter to a good court that a criminal is beloved in the community-such a criminal gains a conviction and is at liberty to continue his popularly show in the prison house if he so desires.
Of course it is possible, that your counsel may be rejected by Chief Olabode George & Co. They may tell you that a prominent politicians like George must, as his due, receive the massive adoration of his followers all the time, even in the precincts of the court or else how does he prove that indeed he is “a man of the people?”
In that unlikely event, I respectfully urge you to drop their brief. It is a big sacrifice alright, especially from the financial angle, but it is not too much a price for you as a silk and an elder of the bar to pay or bear, for the protection of the judicial institution and criminal law administration.
I am sure if seniors like you set such standards, politicians will fall in line and demobilise their various Georgitas and put a stop to other tricks and antics they put up when they have questions to answer before courts of law over their conduct in public office.
I guess this is a rather long letter, reading of which may have taken much of your precious time. I thank you for your patience. My prayer is that, that your famous “Apoti Aje” – the modified lecture lectern you use in the inner not grow less or shaky. E e pe fun wa, Sa.

Yours faithfully,

Adesina Ogunlana Esq.
Gecko-In-chief

Exclusive: Real Reasons Why the Governor Wants the Lagos CJ Out

Following the Squib’s lead story in her last week’s edition, there now exists, in the upper echelon of the Lagos State Judiciary a strong aura of uncertainty, despite the efforts of the helmsman to douse tension and the sense of unease in his now slippery corridor of power.

Geckos within the perimeter circles of power told this Magazine of the constant assurances the man at the centre of the storm, His Lordship, Augustine Adetula Alabi J, continued to give enquiriers, as to the stability of his government, that all is well.

According to our ever reliable geckos, the honourable Chief Judge took a surprising liberal approval to the SQUIB’S ground shaking news. The Chief Judge was heard telling many people “Don’t mind the yeye boy (Squib’s Editor-In-Chief) he is only exercising his right of freedom of speech. There’s no truth in his claims.”

Some of the aides and support staff of the Chief Judge, also maintained that their boss will use his full term before quitting the stage. Said one or two of the believers to the Squib “The Chief Judge is not leaving office in April as you claim”. In fact the earliest time will be July 2009. Are we not the ones working with milord? Simply because the Chief Judge wrote in his formal retirement notice to the NJC, Squib is now saying he is being sent packing. The truth is that “our oges still dey kampe.”

However deeply informed geckos wining and dining in the Lagos Judiciary authority centre cared to tell the Squib’s Central Intelligence that all is not well with the Chief Judge Adetula Alabi’s tenure despite his lordship’s “cool, calm and collected posture.”

For starters nobody is denying that the Governor of Lagos State Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN has sent in a petition to the Chief Judge’s employer, the National Judicial Council. Or that Honourable Justice Inumidun Akande is a factor in the developments surrounding the office of the Chief Judge, as regards the reality of her becoming the acting Chief Judge in a few weeks.
Informed watchers of the Lagos State Judiciary know that there are unresolved issues between the Governor of the Lagos State and the Chief Judge.

One of such issues according to our high-perch geckos is the view of the Governor that the Chief Judge is yet to give proper account of some equipment materials, like motor vehicles, laptops, photocopiers, all brand new, released to the Lagos State Judiciary for the use of the Election Petition Tribunal Panel members and support staff that sat between 2007 and 2008 to hear various petitions arising out of the 2007 General Elections.

According to our sources, after the Election Petition Tribunal wound up the Governor the last man to pay Father Christmas, was expecting the returning of vehicles and other equipment to the government. However to the utter shock and dismay of the Governor, the vehicle and some office equipment seemed to have gone AWOL and located themselves in the invisible arena of the thin air. According to our sources, since the Election Tribunal members denied and with indubitable proof ever taking the aforementioned objects, the only direction of search lay in the Lagos Judiciary, which could not produce an explanation as to the where about or disposal of the goods, acceptable to the Governor.

Some other complaints against the Chief Judge reaching the Governor directly include allegations of improper disposal of attached goods and unjudicious interventions, expressly or by conduct in cases before some judges.

According to our sources a much bothered Governor Fashola decided to demand for the Chief Judge to proceed on his terminal leave in early April, to make way for a “free and fair” environment conducive to a proper, thorough and unhindered investigation of the activists of the Chief Judge.
The Squib can authoritatively disclose in the light of sundry travails that have come on Chief Judge Alabi in the last lap of his reign suggestions have come to his lordship from certain friends and sympathizers that he should tender his resignation from office to escape the greater embarrassment and inconvenience of dismissal and possible criminal prosecution.

Sources close to the truly embattled Chief Judge Alabi, indicated that judicial prince is not fielding his hands in the wake of the troubles against him, particularly those coming from the direction of the Governor of the State Raji Fashola SAN.

To douse the Fashola fire the Chief Judge reportedly has been visiting and lobbying the owner of the game of politics in Lagos State, Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Asiwaju of Lagos who as everybody knows was the Chief pillar of the emergence of Fashola as Governor of Lagos State and to whom Fashola is believed to respectfully defer to.

The million naira question that remains begging for answers in all these is whether or not the Chief Judge will stay in office till his due retirement time of August 8 2009?

Those who answer this question in the negative became stronger in their conviction when it was noted last week that the Lagos High Court Chambers of the honourable Chief Judge was dusted and cleaned while security men of the Lagos High Court were seen packing out some items from the chambers.

Exclusive: Real Reasons Why the Governor Wants the Lagos CJ Out

Following the Squib’s lead story in her last week’s edition, there now exists, in the upper echelon of the Lagos State Judiciary a strong aura of uncertainty, despite the efforts of the helmsman to douse tension and the sense of unease in his now slippery corridor of power.

Geckos within the perimeter circles of power told this Magazine of the constant assurances the man at the centre of the storm, His Lordship, Augustine Adetula Alabi J, continued to give enquiriers, as to the stability of his government, that all is well.

According to our ever reliable geckos, the honourable Chief Judge took a surprising liberal approval to the SQUIB’S ground shaking news. The Chief Judge was heard telling many people “Don’t mind the yeye boy (Squib’s Editor-In-Chief) he is only exercising his right of freedom of speech. There’s no truth in his claims.”
Some of the aides and support staff of the Chief Judge, also maintained that their boss will use his full term before quitting the stage. Said one or two of the believers to the Squib “The Chief Judge is not leaving office in April as you claim”. In fact the earliest time will be July 2009. Are we not the ones working with milord? Simply because the Chief Judge wrote in his formal retirement notice to the NJC, Squib is now saying he is being sent packing. The truth is that “our oges still dey kampe”
However deeply informed geckos winning and dining in the Lagos Judiciary authority centre cared to tell the Squib’s Central Intelligence that all is not well with the Chief Judge Adetula Alabi’s tenure despite his lordship’s “cool, calm and collected posture”
For starters nobody is denying that the Governor of Lagos State Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN has sent in a petition to the Chief Judge’s employer, the National Judicial Council. Or that Honourable Justice Inumidun Akande is a factor in the developments surrounding the office of the Chief Judge, as regards the reality of her becoming the acting Chief Judge in a few weeks.
Informed watchers of the Lagos State Judiciary know that there are unresolved issues between the Governor of the Lagos State and the Chief Judge.
One of such issues according to our high-perch geckos is the view of the Governor that the Chief Judge is yet to give proper account of some equipment materials, like motor vehicles, laptops, photocopiers, all brand new, released to the Lagos State Judiciary for the use of the Election Petition Tribunal Panel members and support staff that sat between 2007 and 2008 to hear various petitions arising out of the 2007 General Elections.
According to our sources, after the Election Petition Tribunal wound up the Governor the last man to pay Father Christmas, was expecting the returning of vehicles and other equipment to the government. However to the utter shock and dismay of the Governor, the vehicle and some office equipment seemed to have gone AWOL and located themselves in the invisible arena of the thin air. According to our sources, since the Election Tribunal members denied and with indubitable proof ever taking the aforementioned objects, the only direction of search lay in the Lagos Judiciary, which could not produce an explanation as to the where about or disposal of the goods, acceptable to the Governor.
Some other complaints against the Chief Judge reaching the Governor directly include allegations of improper disposal of attached goods and unjudicious interventions, expressly or by conduct in cases before some judges.
According to our sources a much bothered Governor Fashola decided to demand for the Chief Judge to proceed on his terminal leave in early April, to make way for a “free and fair” environment conducive to a proper, thorough and unhindered investigation of the activists of the Chief Judge.
The Squib can authoritatively disclose in the light of sundry travails that have come on Chief Judge Alabi in the last lap of his reign suggestions have come to his lordship from certain friends and sympathizers that he should tender his resignation from office to escape the greater embarrassment and inconvenience of dismissal and possible criminal prosecution.
Sources close to the truly embattled Chief Judge Alabi, indicated that judicial prince is not fielding his hands in the wake of the troubles against him, particularly those coming from the direction of the Governor of the State Raji Fashola SAN.
To douse the Fashola fine the Chief Judge reportedly has been visiting and lobbying the owner of the game of politics in Lagos State, Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Asiwaju of Lagos who as everybody knew was the Chief pillar of the emergence of Fashola as Governor of Lagos State and to whom Fashola is believed to respectfully deferred to.
The million naira question that remains begging for answer, in all these is whether or not the Chief Judge will stay in office till his due retirement time of August 8 2009?
Those who answer this question in the negative became stronger in their conviction when it was noted last week that the Lagos High Court Chambers of the honourable Chief Judge were dusted and cleaned while security men of the Lagos High Court were seen packing out some items from the chambers.