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| 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝘆𝗼 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗶. |
Former Appeal Court President Justice Isa Ayo Salami (rtd) has said that former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi, shouldn’t have been allowed to contest the 2023 presidential elections under the banner of Labour Party (LP).
Justice Salami, who attributed the error to the
inadequacy and incompetence of some of the judges, who he claimed were
responsible for some of the wrong verdicts, also said that the same thing
happened to the Governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf.
He also expressed concern about the incompetence of
some judges and the promotion to the bench without regard to excellence, saying
that some of them lack the background to be judges.
The retired jurist said this in Ilorin, the Kwara
state capital, on Tuesday during a courtesy visit and the presentation of an
award by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) to him.
The award was presented to Justice Salami by founder
of WSCIJ, Dapo Olorunyomi, and the Executive Director, Motunrayo Alaka,
respectively, at his Ilorin home.
According to him, “There are a few bad eggs amongst
some judges. Strictly speaking, I will not say bad eggs. Some of them have a
problem with learning. They don’t have a good background to be judges.
“Imagine appointing a higher registrar as a judge. He
has no experience. In the past, this would not have happened.
“Maybe due to population explosion, we have everybody
rearing law. Every university or college is trying to establish a law faculty.
All these may be responsible, not because they are dishonest.
“Personally, they are inadequate. This might be
responsible for their wrong judgments. At times, if you see the judgments of
some of them, even the Supreme Court judgments, you will be astounded and
wonder at what is happening.
“For instance, Peter Obi ought not be allowed to
contest the 2023 presidential election. In this sense, by the time he lost the
PDP primary, LP had submitted its list of members to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC).
“And the Constitution says there cannot be an
independent candidacy,so how did he become a candidate of the LP if he does not
belong to the LP?
“The same thing happened to the Governor of Kano
State, Abba Yusuf, who had now defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“His name is not in the NNPP’s register, but they
issued him a membership card and the register is supposed to be the mother of
the card.
“But the Supreme Court Countenanced it, even though
the tribunal and Appeal Court frowned at it. That is the problem of competence.
“People get to the Supreme Court not because they are
good but because there is a vacancy from their zones.
” They supersede people who are their seniors, whom
they met at the Court of Appeal and who are more experienced than they are.
“I am a practical example. Some of them who came ten
years after I had got to the Court of Appeal were recommended to the Supreme
Court by me because my zone did not have a vacancy. That is the tragedy we have
found ourselves in. We hope that with time, everything will be corrected.”
Culled from the Vanguard.
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