Salami: Jonathan sends NJC’s retirement request to Senate

Posted by admin Judiciary, Latest Politics, Legislature, Senate Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Strong indications have emerged that President Goodluck Jonathan may have acted on the request of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to retire the suspended President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Ayo Isa Salami, for misconduct, by sending the request to the Senate as required by the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The council had, on August 8, suspended Salami from office for refusing to apologise to it and the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu.

The council also recommended his retirement from service to the president.

Section 292 of the constitution requires two-thirds of the Senate to support the request before final presidential endorsement.

A top source disclosed that the letter from the Presidency was received at the office of the Senate president on Wednesday, September 7.

Jonathan had also filled the vacuum created by the suspension of Salami with the appointment of Justice Adamu Dalhatu as the acting PCA.

Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, had, last Tuesday, disclosed that Adamu’s name would soon be presented by Jonathan for confirmation as substantive PCA, while announcing the president’s request for confirmation of Justice Dahiru Musdapher as the substantive CJN.

Salami is before a Federal High Court in Abuja challenging his suspension from office.

It was learnt that the absence of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, which would screen the president’s request before presenting its report to the larger house at plenary, had largely been responsible for the delay in confirming both Musdapher and Adamu as well as considering the council’s request on Salami.

Adamu’s state of health might also have a role to play, according to a source, in the decision of the president not to forward his name yet to the Senate for confirmation.

He had reportedly travelled to Egypt for medical treatment and came back to the country not completely healed.

The Senate committees were eventually put in place last Thursday, with Senator Umaru Dahiru from Sokoto State retaining his headship of the committee.

Sunday Tribune has also authoritatively learnt that the Senate screening for confirmation for Musdapher had been fixed for next Wednesday.

A source also disclosed that the week might also see something coming up on Salami and Adamu.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the Federal Government’s case against former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over alleged operation and maintenance of 16 foreign accounts while in office between 1999 and 2007 is being amended to accommodate fresh facts coming up on the case.

A highly-placed source told Sunday Tribune that the charge preferred against him at the Code of Conduct Tribunal by the Code of Conduct Bureau, which is under the Presidency, is being amended to include the alleged perjury, since the accused was said not to have disclosed the said accounts while filling his Code of Conduct form in 2003 as required by the Fifth Schedule Part 1 of the 1999 Constitution.

The form is reportedly filled under oath, since it is a constitutional duty and any information given in it is expected to have the weight of deposition.

It was gathered that the perjury case might be stronger than the operation of the accounts while in office, considering the fact that many media reports, suspected to have been sympathetic to the accused cause, had concurred that he did not close the accounts and reveal their existence in his Code of Conduct form.

Tinubu’s supporters, while defending him on the accounts, had consistently alluded to the fact that the accounts were not used for money laundering, even though undisclosed as required by the law.

He has a September 21 date at the tribunal.

It is likely that the prosecution serves the amended charge on him this week.

A source told Sunday Tribune that the amendment “is to make the case against him water-tight.”

As of last Friday, his legal team had not filed any response to the pending charge against him.

-Tribunewp_posts