Alleged rights abuse: Lagos CJ, others sued to court

The Chief Judge (CJ) of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Phillips has been dragged before Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos by an elder statesman, Alhaji Abdul Rauf Tijjani, for the enforcement of his fundamental rights.

Others joined as respondents in the suit designated FCH/L/CS/823/14 includes: The chairman, National Judicial Council (NJC) and Chief Judge of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Mukhtar Aloma, as first respondent, Justice Funmilayo O. Atilade, Justice J. E. Oyefeso and Justice O. A. Williams, all of whom are judges of the Lagos High Court, as second, third and fourth respondents respectively.

Alhaji Tijjani in his Motion on Notice wants Justice Buba to issue a declaration that the NJC, and the CJN, cannot escape the sanction law where in their official capacity allowed his fundamental rights to be compromised in the way and manner they handled his complaints against the judicial officers from the Bench of Lagos State judiciary.

The elder statesman argued that the NJC glossed over a series of petitions that he wrote against some Lagos judges, and thus violated his fundamental rights as guaranteed under Section 17 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He also wants the court to issue a declaration that the judges that he reported of their alleged misconduct to the first respondent, that is, the NJC, need not be tried in a court of law but that Section 158(1) of the Constitution provides that the NJC has the power to make appointment or exercise disciplinary control over them.

Alhaji Tijjani explained that allowing such alleged gross misconduct of the judges from the Bench of Lagos state judiciary to go on unabated amounts to a breach of constitutional law and a social contract with him.

The plaintiff equally wants a declaration that the Chief Judge of Lagos State, who allegedly  disobeyed an order of the Lagos division of the Court of Appeal dated April 18, 2013, has criminally breached the constitutional duty of a Bencher.

The elder statesman also wants a declaration that  it is a gross violation of his fundamental rights, and that the NJC as a constitutional duty not be allowed to be compromised. He wants a declaration that, "Justice Atilade has no jurisdiction to entertain or grant any order on incompetent statement of claim in the suit number ID/730/2003, between Tijjani and others versus First Bank of Nigeria Plc., for the recovery of monies stolen from his current account.

"That the refusal to allow him to refile a suit which the Court of Appeal ordered to start de novo (afresh) under another judge, has exposed the judiciary to public odium and contempt and shows malice, fraud, cruelty, and flagrant disregard of law in gross violation of his fundamental rights as guaranteed under Section 17(2)(a)(d-e) of the 1999 Constitution."

He also wants the court, "To declare that the conversion of a ruling by a trial judge, Justice J. E. Oyefeso on December 17, 2009, into a final judgement syndicate yet-to-be identified within the respondents' network in a suit he filed has caused his fundamental rights to be subsumed and compromised in gross violation of his fundamental rights as guaranteed by the constitution.

"An order that foreclosed his two properties in a vindicative act by Justice O.A. Williams. An order of the court to award a damage sum to the tune of N500 million against its negligence."

Further hearing in the matter has been fixed for July 18, 2014.