Lagos — When Governor Rashidi Ladoja of Oyo State was impeached early this year, many thought that Ibadan, Africa's most populous city would go up in flames. But the impeached Governor, a democrat chose to tread the path of the rule of law. His implicit faith in the Judiciary paid of last Wednesday when the Court of Appeal decided in his favour and nullified his purported impeachment. Mallam Yusuf Ali SAN, Ladoja's counsel in the case, gave a blow-by-blow account of the tortuous journey to victory.
Ibadan, the Oyo State capital is currently in a celebratory mood as a result of the judgment of the Court of Appeal nullifying the impeachment of Governor Rashidi Ladoja. You are Ladoja's counsel and you have been in that matter right from the beginning at the Panel level last year. How has it been, coming this far in such a complex case?
When this matter started and I was briefed by the Governor, even before the Impeachment Panel came into place, he contacted me two weeks before the crisis got to a crescendo. We filed an action in which we made the Acting Chief Judge a party, that he should not constitute any panel. We specified that we had an application for injunction, but by some maneuvering, the Acting Chief Judge went on to constitute a panel, even though he was aware of our motion.
I want to recall that the panel was set up and inaugurated very late in the evening of a Wednesday in December. On Thursday the panel went to work without inviting Governor Ladoja. Then he called me and I rushed down to Ibadan on Thursday, but luckily for us, the panel ran into a hitch. They requested a particular document, which they couldn't get and that necessitated that they had to go for an adjournment. Then, like an after thought they now said 'Okay, Ladoja should come and file his defence, if he has any, tomorrow.' That was on a Friday.
So, I appeared before them on Friday and we raised some points of law. One, we were aware that three of the seven-member panel were members of the PDP, which is against the provisions of Section 8 (5). We also knew that one of them was a member of AD. We knew that one of them had been a very bitter critic of Ladoja. He had used the opportunity of being an Imam in a Mosque to launch vitriolic attacks on the person of the governor. We raised all these and they said no. In any event, the matter was pushed on to anther day. We came back that Monday and we wanted to call witnesses, the panel said no. We summoned people; because they made an allegation that the man had a foreign account. This was a matter that had gone before the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the man was exonerated.
We told the panel that we wanted to subpoena the Registrar of that Tribunal so that he could bring documents to show this. They said Ladoja used state money to open his personal account with then Standard Trust Bank. We subpoenaed the MD to show that the account there was the Joint Local Government Account of the state. That the governor did not use the money to open an account for himself. These were the kinds of allegations. It would also interest you to know that we subpoenaed the Accountant-General of Oyo State. This hapless woman came with armed escort but they didn't allow her into the venue of the panel.
This was widely reported by the press. So on that Monday at about 4:25pm we were now given the impossible, that we should file a defence at or before 6 .00 pm of that same day! It would also interest people to know that the House did not call a single person to come and testify in support of the allegations. The panel just took the allegations hook, line and sinker. That was the basis of their findings. So of course, as to be expected, on January 12, 2005 there was the interlude of a public holiday for Sallah of about four days including the weekend. On that Monday as I was coming to court for the case we filed which was coming up for the Motion at the High Court at Iyagankun; I was coming from my hotel and as I was passing by D'Rovans Hotel where the 18 members of the House were marooned since the crisis started, I observed that they were dancing and I was surprised. It was around 8: 30 am. Unknown to me, the police had secured the House for them with armoured carriers two days earlier. They had gone to the House early in the morning and claimed that the panel had submitted its report and pronounced that Ladoja had been impeached.
At that point in time they had all the paraphernalia of state to support what they were doing. In a jiffy they stripped the governor of all security apparatus and right before my eyes in court their lawyer got up in court and said he wanted to tell the court that we should not be wasting our time! That Ladoja had been impeached at about 7: 30 am. Their lawyer said he wanted to inform the court. We all know that the Oyo State House of Assembly used to sit in the afternoon.
That was how it happened. I saw the Deputy Governor being sworn in with a lot of fanfare by the Acting Chief Judge. Our experience at the panel was something I never expected I would encounter, of all the things we were taught at the Law School!
A Senior Advocate was appearing with me. He wanted to go to the gents while we were still at the panel. He was lucky he was escorted by two other people, because two ladies accosted him and said, 'This one is a fool'! That if not because people were following him they would have rough-handled him and they would make noise that he was trying to fondle their breasts! It was as bad as that! It was that dangerous.
Then of course, at a point Niyi Akintola, SAN filed at action for the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker saying that under the Constitution the duty of commencing impeachment proceedings was that of the Speaker, who would have been addressed by not less than 1/3 of the members of the House. He was the person mandated constitutionally to give the notice to the Governor and to whom the reply of the Governor must come. In any event, the resolution that was passed was at D'Rovans Hotel, which is not the House of Assembly. So they went to court. It was at that point that Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN was brought in to lead Niyi Akintola, SAN and others. That was also when I brought in application on behalf of Ladoja to be joined as Governor. That was how he became the 3rd appellant.
With this decision of the Court of Appeal nullifying Governor Ladoja's impeachment what does it portend for democracy and the rule of law in Nigeria?
I congratulate the Nigerian Judiciary! Like I always say, of the three arms of government the Judiciary has always been the most enduring, the most patriotic and the most credible. This is just another occasion that the Judiciary has discharged itself creditably as a defender of democracy and the rule of law. I salute all the very able and brave Justices who sat in judgment, especially in this matter.
I can assure you that it would promote the rule of law and democracy and it would also promote our jurisprudence. Hitherto, people felt that once it's an impeachment matter, the court cannot look at it. But that would not be right or rational. You may want to know that Section 188 has 11 subsections. Section 188 (1) to (8) stipulates very elaborate steps that must be taken for impeachment. Section 188 (10) which people now hold on to, that court cannot look into the matter presupposes that other sections have been complied with! Otherwise, you would have a situation where three members of the House would go under a tree and sit down and say they are passing a motion for impeachment of a Governor! The Constitution never envisaged that.
Legally and constitutionally what is the next step? The Akala team of counsel has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. Would you seek to execute this judgment?
By the grace of God, the judgment of the appellate court is clear. The pedestal, the ladder, the foundation, the substratum upon which the Alao Akala government was based has been wiped away. The implication of that judgment is that in the eyes of the law and our Constitution he was never a Governor. It means that Ladoja is the Governor. Of course they will exercise their constitutional right to appeal. But nobody has the constitutional right to defeat the judgment of a court.
But legally shouldn't Ladoja reassume office immediately?
Yes he should! That is what the Court of Appeal has said and that is the law!
Did you have confidence at the beginning of this case that this would be the outcome, given the fact that Akala moved in immediately with all the paraphernalia of office? People had lost confidence.
I never for once doubted the fact that the law would take its course. I know the doggedness of Ladoja and I am a true believer in the rule of law. At the point of impeachment I asked him a question one on one, I said, 'Your Excellency, suppose what we thought was not going to happen happens? What would be your attitude to the cases?' He said, ' I will fight all these cases to the end of the court system because I am a democrat and I believe in the rule of law', so that kept me going too.
I knew something was wrong with the way the matter was going and now I am vindicated. I was confident we would arrive at justice with regard to this particular case.
It was widely reported that you and other lawyers on the Ladoja side were attacked by thugs and miscreants at the court premises during one of the sittings. What really happened?
What happened was that we finished the arguments in the case and went down, because the Court of Appeal Ibadan Division is upstairs. We came down after the court session and we stood in a group discussing. Olanipekun SAN was there, as well as Kola Awodein SAN and the rest of the team. Suddenly, this group of men came and started raining curses in Yoruba on us, in the presence of policemen. They abused us and threatened that they were going to waste us if we don't go to our own different towns, that Ibadan belongs to them. Apparently, they were carrying guns. Unfortunately, the policemen who were around us just disappeared! As if to say, 'Look, do whatever you want with them.' They moved round us menacingly, encircling us. But thank God for his intervention. God came to our rescue.
Does that explain why you and the other appellant counsel were not in court today (Wednesday October 31) while the judgment was being delivered?
As a matter of policy, speaking for myself, I hardly go to court when a matter is for ruling or for judgment. I feel there is no real role for a leading counsel to play there. In the Court of Appeal you can't even ask for costs because if they were going to award costs they would have already put it there in their judgment. By my own style I hardly go to court for judgments. I have been doing this for years, even before becoming SAN. It wasn't really out of fear because I believe we were all under the umbrella and safety of God.
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You frequent the Supreme Court as Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Is there anything that gives you the absolute hope that the apex court would hear this appeal expeditiously?
Let me tell you what the Supreme Court did in this matter which was quite heart warming. The appeal was pending and the respondents brought an application for a stay of proceedings, because they had appealed against our own Motion for Joinder to the Supreme Court. They were using that appeal as a gimmick to stop the Court of Appeal. On the day the matter came up at the Court of Appeal, the President of the Court of Appeal himself graciously came down to lead the team. They now said they had a motion before the Supreme Court that the Court of Appeal should not go on with the matter.
We came to the Supreme Court on the date fixed for the hearing. The Supreme Court, as the apex court of the land, as the standard bearer of justice in Nigeria ruled that they could not find their way through granting such a Motion, when it was apparent that the office being adjudicated upon, by the effluxion of time would come to an end in May, 2007. So the apex court threw out the motion for stay.
The apex court is well alive to its responsibilities in matters of this nature. I can assure that if the Akala side is desirous of pursuing any appeal at all, the apex court would do everything possible to dispose off the appeal in record time. But in terms of the appeal it does not stop operation of the judgment given today.
Given the nature of politics in Oyo State where a cabal of political stalwarts determines what happens in the state, do you envisage any crisis that may warrant a declaration of a state of emergency, which some say has now become a ready tool in the hands of the President?
Well, I pray that reason will prevail. I believe that we are all reasonable people. The court has spoken. The Judiciary has decided, now reason should prevail. People should not forment any trouble, everyone should be law abiding so that the appellation of Wild, Wild West should not come to pass. That is the part of rectitude in this matter. It can't be otherwise. It has been settled constitutionally. When Ladoja was impeached he did not resort to violence. He believes in the rule of law and the other side should also believe in the rule of law and allow the law to take its course.
