Justice Isa Ayo Salami (retd)! Remember him? He was the President of the Court of Appeal who during his tenure accused his boss, long-time friend of many decades and Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ignatius Aloysius Katsina-Alu of attempted justice perversion in a dispute arising from the 2007 gubernatorial election which produced Alhaji Magatarkadar Aliyu Wamakko as Governor of Sokoto State.

Ayo Salami J had alleged that the then CJN invited him into his office at Supreme Court, requesting him to influence the panel of justices in the case to give judgment in favour of the sitting governor which he claimed he refused to do.

At the time, the Court of Appeal was the final court of law on gubernatorial election dispute. All appeals that strayed into the Supreme Court on gubernatorial election then were not taken on merit by the panels of Supreme Court on the account that section 246(3) gave the Court of Appeal the final say on dispute from such election. In summary, such cases were terminated in limine.

But in a manner that amounted to a judicial coup, the case of the governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Magatarkadar Aliyu Wamakko came to the Supreme Court after the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Salami had purportedly refused to agree to the request by the then CJN, Justice Katsina-Alu to influence judgment in favour of the sitting governor and the apex court which should be the guardian of the 1999 Constitution, the basic law of the land, breached without conscience, the provision of section 246(3) of the 1999 constitution to take the case and terminated the appeal before the Court of Appeal which was sought to be influenced on the account of abuse of court process.

Series of events followed the interface between the President of the Court of Appeal and the Chief Justice of Nigeria with the NJC setting up panels upon panels on the matter, entering funny verdicts. The incident eventually led to the forceful retirement of Justice Salami.

In a paper delivered at the 2016 annual lecture of the Nigerian National Merit Award, titled: ‘ Corruption Eradication and the Nigerian Ethical Revolution’ , Salami spoke about his controversial retirement from the Bench under Chief Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, saying the incumbent CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, played a role in the episode.

The former appellate court President also explained why corruption thrives in the Nigerian judiciary while stating that the rules make it easy for the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to manipulate the National Judicial Council (NJC) in disciplining judges accused of corruption.
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