Former Governor of Ekiti State and National Vice Chairman, South West, of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Segun Oni, has told an Oyo State High Court in Ibadan that his petition to the National Judicial Council and the Presidency on the telephone interactions between the suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, and leaders and counsels of the Action Congress of Nigeria was borne out of his patriotic duty to report judicial indiscretions to the rightful authorities.
Oni stated that it was the unethical behaviours, which he noticed in Justice Salami’s conduct in the handling of the appeal of the candidate of the ACN against him that informed his petition to the NJC, upon which, along with other unethical conduct, made the body to recommend the suspension of Justice Salami to the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
Oni’s Chief Press Secretary, Lere Olayinka, in a statement on Tuesday, said: “Oni, in his statement of Defence filed before the court against a libel suit by Chief Niyi Akintola SAN against him over his petition to NJC on Justice Salami telephone interaction with some ACN lawyers and chieftains during the pendency of the Ekiti Election tribunal, stated that his investigation established a proven uncontroverted evidence of telephone contacts (both voice and text messages) between Justice Salami and some chieftains of the ACN and their counsel.
“In the statement of defence filed through his Counsel, Gani Faniyi Esq, Oni maintained that as a responsible Nigerian citizen, whose duty it is to assist in the maintenance of justice and good governance, he petitioned NJC, a body empowered by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to investigate and discipline erring judicial officers.
“Oni also stated further that in the exercise of his constitutional rights, he forwarded and communicated same petition to the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the custodian of law and order, as well as the peace and good governance in the country.
“Indeed the GSM telephone number 08037643770 of Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), a leading member of the ACN battery/team of Senior Counsels, was located and cited among others in the call logs provided by MTN communications company to the Security agencies, as one of the calls to Hon. Justice Ayo Salami during the pendency of the Appeal of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN before a Panel of the Court of Appeal, presided over by Hon. Justice Ayo Salami.”
While questioning Akintola’s integrity, Oni maintained that it was Akintola’s trademark to berate, pour venom, denigrate in an uncouth manner against the PDP, cast sweeping aspersions on its officials, sympathisers, including himself (Oni), former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Governor Olusegun Agagu and many others.
He said Akintola was counsel to the PDP candidate in Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, former Governor of Ondo State in the Ondo State Gubernatorial Tribunal/Appeal contest of 2007, whose legal duty it was to defend the electoral victory of the PDP and it’s candidate, Dr. Olusegun Agagu against his opponent of the Labour Party, Dr Olusegun Mimiko.
Oni averred that he considered it uncharitable and unprofessional for Akintola, who was briefed, paid and indeed defended the election of PDP governorship candidate in Ondo State before the Election Tribunal to later turn around to claim in a newspaper interview that “the PDP never won election in the South West.”
He said the inference and conclusion that was drawn from the position and press statements of the claimant on the 2007 gubernatorial contest in which he participated and acted as counsel that defended the victory of the candidate of the PDP, was that his client, Olusegun Agagu/PDP, rigged the election in which he was declared winner, since according to the claimant, the PDP did not win the election.
Oni added: “Not yet done with his usual castigation of the PDP in the South West, especially on the 2007 gubernatorial elections, in which the Claimant acted for and defended the PDP’s Ondo gubernatorial contest, he, as usual, upbraided the PDP in yet another vitriolic interview contained, in a full page of THE NATION newspaper edition of Saturday, May 11, 2011, threw caution to the winds in the denigration of the first Defendant’s Peoples Democratic Party PDP, to an extent that his interviewer, one Lekan Salaudeen, who must have been startled at his vituperations, referred to him as a fiery Ibadan-based lawyer.”
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