A high-powered Judiciary reform committee headed by Justice Muhammad Uwais yesterday submitted its report in which it urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the National Judiciary Council to reinstate suspended president of the Court of Appeal Isa Ayo Salami “in the interest of justice.”
The 28-member Uwais committee was set up by CJN Dahiru Musdapher in October to recommend ways of reforming the Judiciary, which came under heavy public criticism in the wake of the Salami suspension saga.

Salami was suspended after he publicly accused the then CJN Aloysius Katsina-Alu of interfering with the Sokoto election tribunal to favour incumbent Governor Aliyu Wamakko. An NJC investigation found that Salami had no evidence to prove his allegation, and therefore asked him to apologise, which he refused to do and was therefore suspended. Salami is now in court challenging his removal from office.

Uwais yesterday presented the report of his reform committee to Musdapher at a ceremony in Abuja. Though Uwais did not mention what the report contains, an official who is privy to the contents told Daily Trust that the report urged the CJN and the NJC to reconsider the decision to remove Salami so as to maintain the integrity of the judiciary and restore confidence in the system.

The official also said the committee further recommended “urgent” reconciliation between Salami and Katsina-Alu.

While presenting the report, Uwais said some of the recommendations contained will require constitutional changes and amendments to laws, while others can be implemented administratively.

He said some members of the committee did not sign the report, but he was not aware of their reasons for not doing so.

“JB Daudu SAN and Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN have not signed but I don’t know why. When we were in the committee, they did not indicate that they disagreed with the report,” Uwais told journalists shortly after submitting the report.

Daily Trust also learnt that the committee recommended the appointment of the CJN from outside the rank of the Justices of the Supreme Court by the Federal Judicial Service Commission.

On the National Judicial Institute, the committee recommended the need to advertise vacancies for the position of the Administrator and other principal officers of the NJI.

At the report presentation, Uwais said the committee was unable to meet the November 18 deadline it was initially given because of unavoidable delays at the beginning and the Eid el-Kabir public holidays.

Receiving the report, the CJN said that the nation’s judiciary was in need of urgent reforms. “I pray that the Nigerian Judiciary must not fail under my watch,” he added.

Musdapher said the committee included four former CJNs, three former PCAs, three former Chief Judges of the Federal and State High Court, a former Judge of an international court and 13 legal practitioners of repute as well as two heads of Judiciary-related parastatals.

The Uwais-led committee was set up to, among others, recommend measures to address the quality and timeliness of the trial process, procedural inefficiencies, poor infrastructure, as well as poor conditions of service for judicial and non-judicial officers.

It was also to suggest ways to tackle the “declining intellectual quality and reasoning content of delivered judgments, corruption, as well as the effects of an unrestrained quest for political power which have served to disrupt the efficiency of the judiciary and damaged its perception by the public.”

Members of the committee were Justices Salihu Modibbo Alfa Belgore, Idris Kutigi, Aloysius Katsina-Alu, Mamman Nasir, Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Mustapha Akanbi, Umaru Abdullahi, Kayode Eso, Umaru A. Kalgo, Rose N. Ukeje, R.P.I. Bozimo and Lawal Hassan Gummi.

Also on the panel were senior lawyers Joseph Daudu, Richard Akinjide, Abdullahi Ibrahim, A.G.F. AbdulRazak, and Anthony O. Mogboh, T.J.O. Okpoko, Wole Olanipekun, O.C.J. Okocha, Olisa Agbakoba, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and Lanke Odogiyan.

Other members were Hajiya Hairat Balogun, Prof. Epiphany Azinge, Dr. Mamman Tahir and Mr. A.B. Mahmud.