A follow up to this Lawan, Akpabio: Supreme Court Lambasts Kperogi, Faceless Groups

A Reply to a Supreme Court of Illiterate Judicial Bandits - Kperogi

When I opened my WhatsApp on Saturday, I saw a higher than usual volume of messages and forwards from friends. The first one I opened was a riotously uneducated, sidesplittingly error-ridden, indefensibly malapropistic press statement attacking me for calling out the Supreme Court’s bizarre perversion of justice in recognizing Senate President Ahmed Lawan as Yobe North’s APC senatorial candidate when he didn’t participate in a primary election.

The statement was such an uproariously juvenile drivel that I sincerely thought it was written by someone who was trying his hand at textual comedy—following the wild success of online video comic skits.

I laughed hysterically as I read the statement. Who won’t laugh after reading of “abysmal pit of irredeemable ignorance,” “convoluted anger,” “caution-gate of self-control,” “pen-happy Kperogi,” “mood of bellicose jingoism,” “ineptly scripted toxic article,” and several other hilariously sophomoric howlers?🤣

I opened another WhatsApp message and found that the press statement was headline news in all major newspapers in Nigeria. That was when I realized that it wasn’t a comedic script written by a barely literate high schooler choking on the ill-digested vocabularies he swallowed hurriedly; it was actually an official statement from Nigeria’s Supreme Court! Good gracious!

Facility for and proficiency in language (in Nigeria’s case the English language) and mastery of logic are as central to the job of lawyers and judges as stethoscopes are to the job of a physician. But here’s a Supreme Court that can’t write a statement that isn’t a ludicrous travesty of the language it uses for official business.

I'd never heard of the Supreme Court of any country responding to the criticism of its judgment by singling out a private individual who called them out. This is a world record of supreme infantilism.

Well, the fact that they had a need to isolate my criticism and pour such venom on me shows that I hit them at the right spot, that I exposed an uncomfortable truth about them that they’d thought had been hidden from public knowledge, which is basically that most of them are rapacious, unprincipled, conscienceless, and cash-and-carry judges who sell “justice” to the highest bidder.

The current Chief Justice of Nigeria, in fact, makes no pretenses about where his financially induced political biases lie. The other day, he was invited by Governor Nyesom Wike to commission projects during which he made openly partisan political statements and turned himself into Wike’s pitiful praise poet.

When I called him out, he issued a statement to deny making the politically compromising statements he made in Port Harcourt that I'd quoted. But after I shared the video clip of him saying exactly what he denied saying--and more--he shut up but bottled up the anger and bile that welled up in him, which he ventilated yesterday using the opportunity that my biting censure of the Supreme Court provided.

The truth is that he violated Rule 1(5) of the Judicial Code of Conduct, which says that "a judge must avoid social relationships that are improper.... or that may cast doubt on the ability of a Judicial Officer to decide cases impartially."

So, it is either that Justice Olukayode Ariwoola is a fundamentally dishonest person who lies blatantly, or he was so helplessly inebriated by Wike’s treats that he didn’t know what he was saying in Port Harcourt, which is frankly a distinction without a difference.

The cockamamie judgments that have been emanating from the Supreme Court lately reflect the character—or lack thereof—of the man who leads it. Of course, he is not alone in this brazen-faced, in-your-face moral depravity. Most of his colleagues are also purchasable judicial mountebanks with zero self-worth. Thank God for the few honest ones among them.

In its embarrassingly rambling, incoherent riot of a press statement attacking me, the Supreme Court didn’t say a word about the judicial merit of its judgement. It only says it’s not “Father Christmas” and that “no one can get what he or she didn’t ask for.”

In other words, the Court is confessing that it doesn’t dispense justice to whoever deserves it; its “justice” is the exclusive preserve of people who “ask for” it, which is obviously code for those who pay for it. That’s straight-up judicial banditry!

But here are the issues. During the senate confirmation hearing of former CJN Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad (another hopelessly inept and compromised CJN that left his position in disgrace), Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe called attention to the legal and moral burden of overlooking the merit of cases before the Supreme Court on the basis of “mere technicality.”

“In the 2018 case of Akeredolu vs Abraham, the Supreme Court said, ‘technicality in the administration of justice shuts out justice.’…It is therefore better to have a case heard and determined on its merit than to leave the court with the shield of victory obtained on mere technicality,” Abaribe said.

In other words, the Supreme Court had laid a precedent that says the Court should not invoke procedural inanities as a pretext to subvert the legal merit of cases, which is precisely what Ariwoola’s Supreme Court did in Lawan’s case—and most cases involving generous bribe givers.

In my July 20, 2019, column titled “A ‘Technically’ Incompetent Chief Justice of Nigeria,” I wrote: “All over the world, courts rely on precedents to adjudicate current cases. Precedents may be modified, but they are rarely overturned without a compelling reason, certainly not within a few years after they were established. That is what legal scholars call stare decisis, that is, the doctrine that courts should follow precedent.”

A senior lawyer who followed my articles on the Ahmed Lawan case had told me months ago that I should forget thinking I could change anything and preserve my intellectual energies for more productive causes because the Supreme Court had already been “settled” and would deliver tendentious judgements to legitimize the electoral frauds by politicians who were too busy running for president to have time to participate in the primary elections for senatorial positions.

It was hard to believe, but it happened exactly as he said it would. So, the Supreme Court already had a conclusion (i.e., that big men with money to “spoil” Supreme Court justices must get what they “ask for,” to use the statement from the Court) and were merely searching for “evidence” to support the conclusion, instead of the other way around.

They invented the “evidence” in “technicalities,” which their own precedent had invalidated. In rhetorical studies we call that finalism.

That’s why it’s customary to say that “judgment” and “justice” are not synonymous. Some judgements pervert justice. The Nigerian Supreme Court in the last few years has shown that it’s not in the business of dispensing justice; it only gives judgments to favor people who “ask for it” the “right” way. They are not the “Father Christmas” of justice. They are wolfish judicial bandits who operate a judgment-for-sale racket with impunity.

At this rate, this Supreme Court of judicial bandits may give us a “Supreme Court president,” that is, a person who comes fourth (a la Hope Uzodinma of Imo State) in the presidential election but who has enough money to “ask for” a favorable judgement from the two-bit mercenary charlatans at the Supreme Court.

Farooq Kperogi

Peter Obi won twice at the supreme Court to retain his mandate when the PDP cabals removed his mandate which the masses of Anambra state gave him.

Maybe Peter Obi may win a hattrick.

We don suffer

Kikikiki...what many have not realized is that this election will swallow many wicked elites.

When God decides to change a situation, who be Ariwoola?


As per Kperoogi, keep entertaining us with your writing.

Me, I understand what you are trying to do and I know where your heart lies.

Kperogi dey write abeg.
Him articles dey give me joy as I dey read am.

In fact, It was a scandalising shock to see the supreme court judgement of Lawan and Akpabio cases!

APC and buhari has destroyed the very fabrics of this nation. Curse upon their hoary heads

Conceding defeat like a loser


Emi lokan ... Awa lokan

CJN Alhaji Ariwoola

Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu



.

This CJN should be acting film , his face is funny already.

Seriously, some of the judgements coming out from the Nigerian Supreme Court in the last 7 years of Buhari's regime is comical. Any court that adjudicate cases brought before it on technicalities rather than on its merits deserves condemnation and ridicule.

Ariwoola was the judge that declared Rauf Aregbesola as Osun Governor at the Appeal Court.

I think he also had a hand in Kayode Fayemi’s judgment as Governor of Ekiti. This was after INEC declared PDP candidates in the two states as returned elected.

In those days Governorship Election Petition ended at Appeal Court.

After those suspicious judgments, Ariwoola was heavily investigated and even suspended by NJC for selling the two judgments, but was later cleared and elevated to the Supreme Court.

Now he’s back at the top in Supreme Court to do Tinubu’s bidding.

But God will embarrass him.

If the supreme court gives nigerians an unpopular supreme court president there will definitely be a revolution far worse than the endsars protests that will consume those corrupt supreme court judges.

Justice for sale.. Welcome to Nigeria

The CJN has turned a revered position into a mocking stature.


Many judgements are bought, it's no secret.

fergie001:
A follow up to this Lawan, Akpabio: Supreme Court Lambasts Kperogi, Faceless Groups

Nigeria is finished.
Apc must be voted out.

"At this rate, this Supreme Court of judicial bandits may give us a “Supreme Court president,” that is, a person who comes fourth (a la Hope Uzodinma of Imo State) in the presidential election but who has enough money to “ask for” a favorable judgement from the two-bit mercenary charlatans at the Supreme Court.



There was a Country.

Once again, God bless farooq kperogi. A skilled wordsmith he is.
This useless chief injustice of Nigeria is looking like a major problem for our democracy.

Hmmmm... its ok

1b Kardashian vote in the mud... This election is clearly between Obi and Atiku, Tinubu is just the third force playing the spoiler to favour Atiku and we won't allow it, Tinubu must step down now.

Smh....

Na IGBOS dey cause this nonsense..MNK has been freed yet we dey fear fear upandan..

NDI ALA

Our Supreme Court is now a joke!

The chief justice should be removed, arrested and be prosecuted in accordance with the law of Nigeria

Almost all the heads of Key parastatals are loyal to Tinubu. His boys are in the legislature and Judiciary. They are practically everywhere.

The February 25 fight is definitely between the masses and the establishment.

We must not slack.

Nigerians (Nigerian youths particularly) let's prepare ourselves for the violent free revolution. We are starting from the executive right now. When we are done with the executive (by installing OBi as President) we will now focus on the Judiciary and subsequently on the Legislature (where the 1999 military constitution will be completely scrapped and a Nigerian youth led constitution made.

Enough of this nonsense!! If na juju dey did to the Blackman to always have banana republic country we go destroy the juju .

Nbbbb

Lol

The mugu is working for Tinubu.....God will disgrace him

Kperogi with a belter 💯💯

PDP should drag Lawan to court if he wins the senatorial election. It's as easy as that. The only individual the Supreme Court's decision really affects is Deux ex Machina.

fergie001:
A follow up to this Lawan, Akpabio: Supreme Court Lambasts Kperogi, Faceless Groups



Farooq Kperogi

What does Kperogi expect with a Guy man Chief Justice

Thank God he is not Igbo, they would have started a tribal war.