By Richard Akinnola
On January 5, 1994, nine Supreme Court Justices instituted a N450 million libel suit against the Weekend Concord published by Concord Press Limited and owned by Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. This was a novel legal move in the annals of Nigeria, where most of the Justices of Supreme Court would jointly file a libel action against a newspaper.
The Justices were: Mohammed Bello (then Chief Justice), Mohammed Lawal Uwais, Uthman Mohammed, Sylvester Onu, Abubakar Bashir Wali, Idris Legbo Kutigi, Emmanuel Ogwuegbu, Alfa Belfore, and Olajide Olatawura.
The Weekend Concord had published that the Justices were bribed with Mercedes Benz cars by Nigeria’s former dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida, shortly before he left office. But the Justices denied this, claiming it was not bribe but official vehicles.
But the newspaper said if it was official, why did it bear the personal names of the Justices? These were the legal knots to be untied in the case.
This case was pending at Ikeja High Court, Lagos. Following the stay of the bail granted to Abiola by the Court of Appeal, Chief G.O.K. Ajayi (SAN), Abiola’s counsel, lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court against such a stay. But before the appeal could be argued, Chief Ajayi filed another motion before the Supreme Court, asking the Justices who sued Concord, to disqualify themselves from hearing the appeal due to likelihood of bias.
Chief Ajayi’s premise was that since the Justices had libel suits against Concord Press published by Bashorun Abiola, there was a likelihood of bias on the part of the Justices if they heard Abiola’s appeal on the issue of bail. In view of this objection, the Supreme Court Justices who were part of the plaintiffs in the libel case, withdrew from the appeal.
The implication of this was that all the nine Justices that took Concord to court recused themselves from the case. One of the nine Justices, Justice Olatawura, later retired, leaving only three justices that were qualified to sit, leading to a short fall of at least two Justices, since only a minimum of five Justices could sit on a case at the Supreme Court and minimum of seven Justices in a constitutional case like the Abiola’s appeal.
The situation perfectly suited the government. Since the government was not keen in appointing fresh Justices to the Supreme Court, the case became stalled and Abiola continued to languish in jail.
The Abacha junta had amended Section 211(2) of the 1979 constitution on the appointment of Justices of the Supreme court, through the Constitution (Suspension and Modification) Decree No. 107 of 1993, which gave the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC), on the advice of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the power to fill vacant seats at the Supreme court. Since in suited the government for Abiola to remain in detention, it refused to appoint more Justices to the Supreme court.
Meanwhile, the libel case was going on very well at the High court, with Chief Gani Fawehinmi representing Concord.
I recall that in the course of the trial, the Chief Registrar (CR) of the Supreme court had given evidence on behalf of the plaintiffs. During his cross-examination, Gani was at his combative self and counsel to the plaintiffs sought the court’s protection of the witness, saying that as the CR, he deserved some respect from Gani in the course of cross-examination. But Gani countered that he had utmost respect for the CR but in this case, he was not cross-examining the CR but a witness.
He argued: “My Lord, as long as that witness is in that witness box, I am not seeing the CR but an ordinary witness that has to be subjected to vigorous cross-examination. When he steps down from the box, I would give him his due respect as the CR but right now, he is an ordinary witness.” The court agreed with Gani.
However, as the case was going on, and with Abiola’s bail appeal stuck at the Supreme court, Dr. Doyin Abiola, the Managing Director of Concord and wife of Abiola, was working on an alternative route to break the impasse. She felt that if Concord settled out of court with the Supreme court justices and Chief Ajayi withdrew his application that the justices should not be part of the bail hearing, that Abiola would be granted bail.
As the Judicial Editor of Concord, Dr. Abiola and I regularly reviewed the cases, almost on a daily basis. So, this afternoon, she buzzed by the office intercom at Concord, summoning me to her office. She told me she wanted an out-of-court settlement and that I should go and discuss with Gani to soften the ground before she de-briefed him. I was shocked. I told her we were winning the case and that the way the trial was going on had been in our favour.
She was adamant, insisting that I should go and discuss with Gani. I was also adamant that I would not go, telling her that since she was the one that briefed Gani, she should be the one to break the news to him. I knew Gani would be heartbroken, so l refused to be the purveyor of that bad news. I told Dr. Abiola that she was being deceived that Abiola would be granted bail once the case was settled out of court. We argued and argued, but she was insistent and I also refused to cave in.
She then got angry and in her thin voice, told me: “Richard, as your MD, I’m ordering you.” Looking at her straight in the face, I retorted: “Sorry ma, with due respect, I will disobey you because your action would not be in the interest of the publisher.”
Shocked, she shot back: “Richard, o k’oro simi lenu (Richard, you disobeyed me).” I was adamant and replied: “Yes ma, on this, I am going to disobey you.”
She momentarily looked at me and, in utter frustration, said: “Bi eyin Ondo se maa lagidi niyen (that’s how you Ondo people exhibit stubbornness).” I replied: “You forgot that Gani is also Ondo. So, you would still meet another ‘alagidi (stubborn person) in front.’” She could only intone: “Kuro l’office me joo (just leave my office).”
She eventually wrote Gani to de-brief him and Gani almost went into depression because apart from handling the case pro bono, he was very sure Concord was going to win the case. As I cautioned Dr. Doyin, despite the out-of-court settlement, Abiola was never released.
