Disgraceful sack of Nigerian Chief Justice of Gambia

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Anthony A. Kila, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Headlines, NDLEA (Anti-Drug Agency), Oil Politics Wednesday, August 7th, 2013

Wale Sokunbi CURRENTS [email protected]

The story of Nigerians living in different parts of the world is variegated. While there are thousands of Nigerian professionals such as medical doctors and other experts in science, administration and the arts making waves in their professions all over the world, there are also the stories of thousands of our compatriots languishing in various prisons across the world for sundry crimes, notably fraud and drug trafficking.

The penchant of Nigerians for overstaying their visas, and their welcome, in many countries is legendary. It is probably responsible for the decision of Britain to make Nigeria one of the four countries on which it has slammed a $3000 bond, effective from November this year.

But, while the reports of Nigerians’ unsalutory activities abroad have been largely limited to our struggling compatriots, and many Nigerians have found it all too easy to blame the situation on the employment crisis and other problems in the country, what can we say about a Nigerian judge who rose through the ranks in the judiciary in a tiny African country called Gambia, and became Acting Chief Justice of the country, (the same position occupied by our very own Justice Aloma Mukhtar in Nigeria) only to be kicked out of the Gambian judiciary in disgrace for soliciting a N2.5 million (500,000 Dalasi) bribe from a Dutch businessman who had a case at the Gambian Court of Appeal? What greater disgrace can Nigerians in the Gambia and other countries suffer than this indictment of one of the most highly placed Nigerian professionals in the Diaspora for soliciting a bribe?

According to agency reports cited in the Daily Champion newspaper of July 29, Justice Joseph Wowo, who was appointed Acting Chief Justice of the Gambia on June 13 after working as President of the Court of Appeal of the country, was caught on tape asking for a bribe of N2.5 million from a Gambia-based Dutch businessman in return for a favourable judgement in a land dispute case before the Court of Appeal.

He was recorded holding a secret meeting with the Gambian Minister of Justice and Attorney General (who has now also been sacked) and a Dutch businessman and his Nigerian lawyer, over a land dispute case which Wowo admitted that the Dutch would rightly lose at the Gambian Court of Appeal.

In the landmark corruption case in the tiny country of less than two million people, the Nigerian Chief Justice of Gambia, was recorded asking the Dutch: “How much are you willing to offer first so that we can negotiate?”

He was even caught on tape telling the man from whom he solicited the bribe that based on his position as former President of the Court of Appeal of the Gambia and current Acting Chief Justice of the country, he was not supposed to come to a meeting with the Dutchman and the Minister of Justice to discuss anything.

He told the Dutch businessman: ” I read your file at the Court of Appeal. That is why I said you don’t have any case at the Court of Appeal. You will lose at the Court of Appeal because the way they dealt with the case at the Court of Appeal, the lawyer messed it up. That’s why I called your lawyer and said, let us see how we can help you.”

By Justice Wowo’s own admission in the recording, by his position as Chief Justice of the country, he should ordinarily not be meeting with a person who had a case in the Court of Appeal.

He, thereafter, demanded 2.5 million Dalasi (N12.5 million but the Dutch businessman complained that his business had been slow and offered to pay N500,000 Dalasi or N2.5 million. The Gambia’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, who was a part of the bribery deal, then appealed to Justice Wowo to accept N2.5 million and he reportedly agreed saying: “Because of the honourable minister, that is why I am accepting.” He also advised the Dutch businessman to go and borrow the agreed bribe money if he could not raise it.

Expectedly, this disgraceful bribery drama, which also showed Wowo asking the minister for Guinness and brandy because non-alcoholic wines makes his stomach run, is on you tube. Wowo, the disgraced Nigerian judge is reported to have fled the Gambia with his whereabouts currently unknown.

The disgrace of Justice Wowo, which was said to have been widely aired on the Gambia media has been said to be a confirmation of the tainted image of Nigerian judicial officers in the Gambia.

Some Gambian newspapers have been reported since the incident to be referring to Nigerians working in the country’s judiciary and the bar with derogatory nicknames such as the “Nigerian mercenary judges,” the “Nigerian Mafia” and the “Nigerian cowboys” Justice Wowo was only recently made the Acting Chief Justice of the Gambia to replace another Nigerian, Akomaye Emmanuel Agim. He is said to be a graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and was called to be bar in 1999 after being in private practice in Gambia. He was reportedly appointed Principal State counsel and Deputy Head of the Civil Division Ministry of Justice, Banjul, The Gambia, between 1998 and 2001.

He was appointed a high court judge, criminal division, in 2008 and later became President of the Court of Appeal before he was named Acting Chief Justice of the country. Gambia, a small West African country with less than two million people has hired many Nigerians as senior judges and Presidents of its Court of Appeal in its judiciary since its independence in 1965 because it lacks citizens to hold such key positions.

The disgrace and sack of Wowo over bribery allegations is an embarrassment to all Nigerians. It has again highlighted the moral deficit of some of our compatriots. Unfortunately, the misconduct of few Nigerians such as this jugde affects the perception of the country and all Nigerians.

The effect of the involvement of Nigerians in criminal activities is that all Nigerians will be regarded with suspicion wherever they are in the world. This is even more so as Justice Wowo, who is involved in this bribery case, is a highly placed judicial officer whose responsibility as a Chief Justice of a country should have to made him shun the despicable action. The case of Justice Wowo, now a highly placed fugitive from the law, should be a lesson to all Nigerians on the importance of staying on the straight and narrow path.

The disgrace of this judge came at a time that the Chief Judge of the Abia State judiciary was recommended for compulsory retirement on account of age falsification as part of the cleansing and reform programme of the Nigerian judiciary. Judges, as ministers in the temple of justice, ought to be able to live aboard board. It is embarrassing and unacceptable when those who are saddled with the adjudication of cases are themselves given to corruption.

The efforts at the cleansing of the judiciary by Justice Aloma Mukhtar are truly commendable. They should be sustained if the bench is to enjoy the confidence of ordinary Nigerians.

-Sunwp_posts