Lawyer takes on Lagos Judiciary
By Ola Agbaje
What began like a simple domestic quarrel that could be likened to that between a mother and her son has now become a full-blown war of attrition with the Lagos State Judiciary. The gladiators are the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Adebisi Ibitola Sotuminu and a Lagos-based legal practitioner, Adesina Ogunlana.
What sparked off the feud was Ogunlana’s foray into the publication of a news magazine titled: The Squib, with primary focus on the judiciary and an uncompromising mission statement of sanitizing the third arm of government. “The Squib is born to correct and change the many unhealthy traditions and unprogressive developments in the legal profession and the judiciary” and a rather defiant motto: “The Heavens Will Not Fall.” http://www.squibanticorruption.com/ . It was just a matter of time before The Squib got onto a collision path with judicial authorities.
Week after week, since its inception in March 2001, the magazine has been churning out stories and articles that have tended to expose the less-than-desirable practices of the third arm of government in Lagos State.
Indeed, The Squib makes the monitoring of events in and around the courts its primary focus.
To underscore its objectives, a column was devoted to the monitoring of the sittings of the High Court judges. Indeed, the hours of sitting in each court was always recorded and published.
When The Sun asked Ogunlana why he should take it upon himself to monitor the judges’ sittings, his response was quite instructive. “There is a need to wake up the system. How can a judge say that he can conduct his court anytime he likes, while litigants are suffering? Somebody must start the struggle. And I believe by the time we continue to expose such idle practice, they will surely wake up.”
It was not long before the judicial authorities reacted to Ogunlana’s effrontery and the seeming excesses of The Squib magazine. The sale of The Squib in the premises of Lagos State courts was banned. The directive for the ban, which allegedly emanated from the Chief Judge’s office, was neither signed nor dated. To effect the ban on The Squib, security personnel at both the Ikeja High Court and the Lagos High Court were reportedly directed to see to the compliance with the ban.
Stunned by this development, Ogunlana instituted a suit against the chief judge, both in her person and in her official capacity, and three others to thwart the move to silence The Squib.
The lawyer-turned-publisher also joined the Registrar of Lagos State High Court, the state’s Commissioner of Police and the State Attorney General as co-defendants in the suit where he sought the court order to upturn the ban placed on the magazine. The chief judge was undaunted with Ogunlana’s desperate moves. She and the other defendants picked up the gauntlet and joined issues with the legal practitioner. In their preliminary objections, the defendants prayed the court to dismiss or strike out the suit for lack of merit. After listening to the counsel for both parties, the trial judge, Justice B.O. Shitta-Bey, upheld the objection and struck out the suit with N5,000 cost in favour of each of the defendants. He also drove another nail into the coffin of The Squib when he pronounced thus: “For the avoidance of doubt, I hereby place a ban on the sale and distribution of The Squib magazine in Lagos State court premises henceforth.”
But the lawyer refused to give up. He picked holes in the March 6, 2003 ruling of Justice Shitta-Bey and carried his battle to the appellate court. In his notice of appeal, Ogunlana contended that the ban placed on the sale and distribution of The Squib magazine was never an issue canvassed for by the disputants in the Ikeja High Court. For that and other reasons, he wanted the Court of Appeal to void the ruling of Justice Shitta-Bey. The appeal is still pending. He also filed application for stay of execution to the execution of the order of March 6, 2003.
Out of Court
The festering battle between the lawyer and the chief judge was not limited to the court. Indeed, Justice Sotuminu, in her determination to silence The Squib and bring its publisher and editor-in-chief to his knees, has dragged Ogunlana before the legal practitioners disciplinary committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). In her petition dated, January 23, 2003, the chief judge chronicled the sins of Ogunlana, allegedly perpetrated through the publications.
She complained that though Ogunlana was cautioned “about the effect of some stories considered defamatory and disrespectful to the sanctity of the office of a Honourable Judge, and the need to uphold the integrity and reputation of the Judiciary,” rather than heed the caution, Justice Sotuminu alleged that “Ogunlana became more confrontational and bizarre in his subsequent publications.” According to the chief judge, “Mr. Adesina Ogunlana has declared war on the Lagos State Judiciary, using the obnoxious magazine as a medium of intensive publication.”
Besides, the chief judge alleged that, “Mr. Adesina has assumed the position of the National Judicial Council in his attitude as he has arrogated to himself the power to try and pass judgement on ‘erring’ judicial officers of the Lagos State High Court by way of publicly embarrassing them through his Squib publication.”
Based on the several allegations against Ogunlana, Justice Sotuminu wants the NBA Disciplinary Committee to determine, among others, “whether Ogunlana is fit to be a legal practitioner in spite of his unambiguous intention to destroy the legal institution to which we all belong.” The chief judge also wants the NBA committee to determine whether Ogunlana “should continue to publish the notorious magazine despite this worrisome intention.”
To underscore the seriousness of her intention, Justice Sotuminu copied her petition to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Attorney General of Nigeria, the Attorney General of Lagos State, Chief FRA Williams (SAN), the Secretary, Judicial Service Commission and the President of the Nigerian Bar Association.
“Why is Mama doing all this?” was all Ogunlana asked when confronted by The Sun on the moves of the Chief Judge. “I believe we are all concerned about the integrity of the Judiciary. In any case, nobody has accused The Squib of publishing lies. If we do that, then the proper place to seek remedy is the court,” he said.
The Sun investigations at both the Ikeja and the Lagos High courts revealed that the ban may have only helped to spur demand for The Squib which is now selling like hot cake. The readers of the magazine cut across judges, magistrates, lawyers and other officers of the judiciary. In fact, some of the notable law chambers receive their weekly supply of the magazine through subscription.
The Sun gathered that the NBA Ikeja Branch has waded into the crisis in a move to quench the fire. The Nigerian Bar Association, it was gathered, has set up a committee to look into the chief judge’s complaints against Ogunlana and make recommendations. Whether The Squib and its publisher will survive the war against the chief judge or not, only time will tell.
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