It has been revealed how Chief Gani Fawehinmi got the portrait of a Lagos Military Governor out of a Lagos courtrooms.
As a panelist at the 22nd Gani Fawehinmi annual lecture, an associate of the late renowned lawyer and rights activist, Mr. Richard Akinnola revealed that Fawehinmi, appearing in court in one of his cases against the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida, told the presiding judge that the case could not proceed because he was uncomfortable with the portrait handing behind the judicial officer.
‘My Lord, this is one of my cases against the evil military government of General Ibrahim Babangida. As l stand here before my Lord, and seeing the portrait of Brigadier Raji Rasaki behind my Lord, it’s like a gun being pointed at me, also being pointed at my Lord. This is not psychologically good for me and my Lord. So, l respectfully seek for a short adjournment to enable this observation be looked into’, Fawehinmi said.
According to Akinnola, at the next adjourned date, the portrait was not only removed from that particular courtroom but from all the courts in Lagos and replaced with the Coat of Arms.
At the FAWEHINMISM lecture annually organised by the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), with the theme:”Integrity Deficiency in the Justice Sector:Whither the Legal Profession”, Akinnola spoke about perception of corruption in the judiciary.
He decried what he described as ‘executive and judiciary incestuous relationship’, stating that a situation where, in a judicial division of 12 judges, only two are assigned to politically-related cases where an individual is perceived to be an interested party. This, he said, has the possibility of eroding the confidence the public has in the judiciary, as justice has to be rooted in public confidence.
He also criticised the President of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Monica Donghan-Mensem for accepting the appointment as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of IBB Golf Club, from the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Nyesom Wike particularly since the club, made up of political and business moguls, is embroiled in litigations and where the justice could be a defendant.
He wondered how she would empanel the justices if the matter got to the Court of Appeal.
The Guest Speaker, Pastor Tunde Bakare, who was once a counsel in Gani Fawehinmi Chambers, called for a degree of judicial activism ‘the kind the likes of Justice Kayode Eso, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa modelled as judges. Such legal and judicial activism adapted to contemporary challenges but founded on age-long principles of integrity and incorruptability, is required to reclaim the independence and restore the integrity of the justice sector’.
