Adegboyega Balogun & CO.

01/10/2019

TREASONABLE FELONY TRIALS IN NIGERIA (1)

Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s treasonable felony trial was not the first in the country.
The first treasonable felony trial in the history of Nigeria was that of late Joseph Tarka and four others in 1961. Tarka, then president General in the United Middle-belt Congress/Action Group (UMBC/AG) Alliance, was changed along with Ayillah Yough, Ugo Iwoo, Labe Nughar and Lugi Mbiab before a Jos High Court. The trial took place between April and June 1961.
Before the trial at the Jos High Court, a Jos Magistrate Court on Thursday, April 27, 1961 committed the five accused persons for trial after the preliminary investigation into the charge of conspiracy and treason preferred against them. The main treasonable felony trial began on Tuesday , May 16, 1961, in a case that was prosecuted by the then solicitor-general of the Northern region, Mr I.M, Lewis.
However all accused the accused persons were discharged and acquitted.
The most prominent treasonable felony trial in Nigeria’s history was however, the trial and conviction of Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1962 when he was imprisoned by Justice George Sodeinde Sowemimo of Lagos High Court. Awolowo was arraigned along with 30 others in charge No. LA/68/C/62 for planning to overthrow the civilian government of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
Others charged with him were Oladipo Maja, Michael Omisade, Gabby Sasore, Adeyiga Akinsanya, Richard Babalola, Sunbo Jibowu, Samuel Onitiri, James Umoren, Ayo Akinsanya, Sunday Ebietoma, Samuel Taiwo Oredein, Anomuogharan Okotieyesin (Alias Morrison Okotie), Lateef Jakande Josiah Olawoyin.
Others were Uzodinma Nwaobiala, Olabisi Onabanjo, Alfred Rewane, Gabriel Ekewejunoir-Etchie, Chike Obi, Simeon Oyeshile, San Otubanjo, Joseph Tarka, Josiah Lawanson, Muri Badmus, Joshua Akamo, Alex Amuwo, Anthony Enahoro, Sam Ikoku, Ayo Adebanjo and James Aluko.
The prosecutor, late Mr. B.A Adedipe (who later became a judge) alleged that the accused persons formed the intention to levy war against “our Sovereign Lady, the Queen within Nigeria in order by force or constrain to compel our Sovereign Lady the Queen to change her measures or counsels and manifested such intentions over acts” to oust the government of Late Sir Tafawa Balewa .
At the trial which lasted 10 months, 53 witnesses gave evidence for the prosecution while there were 42 defense witnesses, 378 exhibits were tendered, 100 lawyers appeared for the defense and Justice Sowemimo, then 42 and few months old on the Bench in what was the most lengthy judgment in the legal history of Nigeria, took eight hours (9.30am to 5.30pm) to deliver the 400 page judgment.
After he was pronounced guilty, on September 11, 1962, Chief Awolowo in his allocutus predicted that darkness would envelope the nation due to his incarceration.
His words: “it is an irony of history that as one of the architects of Nigeria’s independence, I have spent almost half of Nigeria’s three years of independent under one form of confinement or another. I have fought with vigour against feudal system in the Northern Region and for it’s eradication. I have also fought to prevent the spread of this system to other parts of Nigeria. During the same period, I have strongly advocated the breaking up of the Northern region into more states in order to preserve the peace and unity of the country. I have no doubt and I say this not in any spirit of immodesty that in the process of my political career I have rendered services to this country which historians and those who will live after us will certain remember.
‘Naturally, sir, in the course of such long, turbulent, active political life I have attracted to myself a sizeable crop of detractors as well as political adversaries. Similarly, I have in the course of this fairly long sojourn seen both triumphs and setbacks and I have met them with equal mind.
“It was Peter not the Apostle Peter, but Peter the hero of Walepole’s novel entitled “Fortitude”, who said : “it isn’t life that matters, but the courage you bring to it.” After life had done terrible things to Peter, he heard a voice that said to him, among other things, “Blessed be your verdict and I say in advance blessed be the sentence which your lordship may pass upon me”.
“At this moment, my only concern is not for myself, but that my imprisonment might do harm to Nigeria for three reasons:
“(1) The invaluable services which I have hitherto rendered will be lost to the country at least for a season.
“(2) There might be a heightening of the present tension in the country which has lasted for 15 months already and has done incalculable injuries to the economy of the country.
“(3)” For some time to come, the present twilight of democracy, individual freedom and the rule of law will fall into utter darkness. But after darkness and this is a common place comes the victorious dawn. It is therefore with a brave heart , with confidence and hope that I go from this twilight into darkness unshaken in my faith in God that a glorious dawn will come tomorrow.
“My adversaries might say who am I to say all these? What if I die? The point, of course, is that I am still alive and I will not die in prison. This being so, I am confident that the ideals of justice and individual liberty which I hold dear and which your lordship I called upon to protect will continue to be protected beyond the prison walls and bars until they are realized in our lifetime. I must say that in the entire Federation of Nigeria, the spirit of new Nigeria is already active and at work. The spirit, working through constitutional means which I have spent the whole of my lifetime to advocate is sure to prevail before very long to the delight, freedom and prosperity of all and sundry”.
After this moving allocutus, justice Sowemimo then made the now famous, but off-quoted statement that his hands were tied.
His words: “Wherever others may say, this is my personal view. I am not speaking as a judge, but as a Nigerian. Here we have one of the first premiers of the autonomous regions standing trial. If you were the only one before me, I would have felt that it was enough for you to have undergone the strains of the trial. I would have asked you to go. But I am sorry I cannot do so now because my hands are tied. Having sentenced those young chaps, whatever happens I have to pass some sort of sentence. If I made up my mind to sentence the other accused persons who I find were tools in the hands of others, and if my conclusion is right, it is for me to see that a punishment by me in my court is such that others would that there is preferential treatment”.
Chief Awolowo was eventually freed by General Yakubu Gowon when he assumed power in 1966.
(c) Richard Akinnola

28/05/2019

About Ejigbadero case in 1975

The judge who handled the celebrated Ejigbadero case in the 1970s has finally broken his silence on the case.

Justice Isiaka Ishola Oluwa who clocked 100 years old spoke on the case in his recently released autobiography titled: ‘A Life in Motion Reminiscence of a Jurist at 100 years’, Saturday Tribune has a copy of the book. Justice Oluwa said he believed the celebrated murder case influenced the enactment of the Land Use Decree (now known as Land Use Act) by the military government of General Olusegun Obasanjo.

Justice Oluwa’s account of the case as contained in the book is as follows:

“As a judge, many controversial cases were brought before me that made headlines in the newspapers. One of such cases was the criminal case of Ejigbadero. I was assigned the Ejigbadero case by the Honourable Chief Justice of Lagos State in 1975. The case attracted a lot of public interest because it involved a well-known socialite, one Jimoh Ishola who was the executive chairman of Jimsol Nigeria Ltd, a nail manufacturing company in Lagos. Ishola was better known by his alias, Ejigbadero. He had his factory at the Matori Industrial Estate, and lived in Mushin with his large family, including his four wives. Apart from being an industrialist, Ejigbadero was a well-known land speculator and property dealer. What brought him to my court was a case of murder when he was accused of killing one Raji Oba.

“As a judge, one must remain impartial about every case and not allow public sentiments to affect one’s judgement. Evidence must be presented and witnesses must be led to support or disprove every evidence. I would like to dwell more on the Ejigbadero case, which I believe generated a lot of public interest and in the long run, had more impact on the policy formulation of land matters both at the Federal level and at the State level.

“The Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution led the prosecution and built an impregnable fortress of evidence against Ejigbadero. Sometime in 1974, Ejigbadero had gone to Alimosho village on the outskirt of Lagos, to clear a piece of land which he claimed he had bought. He was challenged by some of the villagers who disputed Ejigbadero’s claim to ownership.

“The land which Ejigbadero decided to clear for a new building construction, contained cocoa, kolanut and some other cash crops. The villagers accused Ejigbadero of an attempt to seize their land illegally. Ejigbadero had come to the land with some boys alleged by the villagers to be thugs. Ejigbadero claimed they were his workers. When the villagers did not allow them to work, Ejigbadero retreated after the first encounter. He returned several times thereafter and this led to clashes during which some of the villagers, including Raji Oba, were wounded. The police at Alimosho intervened and tried to bring peace but to no avail. No one was charged to court at that stage and the police also did not make any arrest.

“On August 22, 1975, Raji Oba was relaxing in front of his house at Alimosho. It was around 7.30 p.m. as his wife hurried in. She said she had seen Ejigbadero in the neighbourhood and warned her husband that he may have come again to cause trouble. The husband agreed with his wife, saying he suspected that Ejigbadero may have come to bury charms on the farm, an all too familiar occurrences in disputes over land owernership in Yorubaland. It was at this point that a gunshot shattered the stillness of the night. Raji Oba fell. His wife, Sabitu Oba, was later to give evidence that she saw Ejigbadero fleeing from the scene of the crime in the company of six other persons. Raji Oba was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“Later that night on August 22, policemen arrested Ejigbadero in his Mushin residence. He was in the middle of a family celebration. Ramota, his young wife, who was delivered of a baby eight days earlier, was having a lavish naming ceremony with its attendant lavish party worthy of a big socialite of Ejigbadero’s social status. The party was attended by many top Nigerians including lawyers, judges, policemen, businessmen and women, socialites, top military officers and public servants. That was his alibi before the court. On the day of Raji Oba’s murder, Ejigbadero claimed he was far from the scene, attending to guests at his baby’s naming ceremony.

“Evidence presented to court was convincing enough, including that of policemen who saw Ejigbadero at Alimosho on the night of the murder. Some other villagers also gave evidence insisting that Ejigbadero came to Alimosho that night in the company of others in a Peugeot 504 station wagon. One Kehinde, one of the prosecution witnesses, gave evidence before the court. He said he was a security guard at Ejigbadero’s factory premises at Matori. He said on the night of the murder, the accused took time off from his naming ceremony, to visit the factory in the company of six other persons who were well-known to Kehinde. He named the six of them. He said they left from the factory premises in a white Peugeot 504 station wagon and returned in the night around 9p.m.

“The defence, led in evidence by Chief Sobo Sowemimo, made great effort to cast doubt on the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses. They also called witnesses to support their alibi that Ejigbadero never left his naming ceremony on that day. They called witnesses but not one of them was with Ejigbadero throughout the day. From the evidence presented before me, I had no doubt in arriving at my verdict that Ejigbadero was our man and that he committed the cold-blooded murder. He was guilty and sentenced to death.

“He appealed my judgement, but the Federal Court of Appeal in 1977 affirmed the judgement. The appeal was heard by Their Lordships Mamman Nasir, Adetunji Ogunkeye and Ijoma Aseme. Dissatistfied, Ejigbadero moved to the Supreme Court and a panel of Their Lordships Alexander, Fatai-Willimans, Irikefe, Bello and Idigbe, affirmed my judgement. The death sentence on Ejigbadero was carried out in 1979.

“The Ejigbadero case was sensational and became of national interest. It highlighted the human aspect of the chaotic land laws in Nigeria, especially in Lagos and its environs and its attendant capacity to disrupt and even destroy the lives of ordinary people. By the time the case came before my court, Nigeria was undergoing tremendous changes. The regime of General Yakubu Gowon, which came into power in 1966, had been toppled and replaced by another military regime headed by General Murtala Muhammed. When Muhammed was killed in the abortive coup of February 13, 1976, he was replaced by General Olusegun Obasanjo.

“I believed General Obasanjo or those close to him were interested in the Ejigbadero case. In 1978, the Obasanjo regime came out with the Land Use Decree which tried to streamline the issue of land ownership in Nigeria. Though it was a one blanket solution for the whole country, the decree is especially useful in Lagos for it gives full discretion to state governors on the issue of land. It also vested the ownership of all land in the state in the governor who can decide to acquire any land for the public interest.

“In the subsequent years, the decree has been replaced with the Land Use Act, but its essential features remained intact. In the past few years and especially since 2016, various state governments have attempted to address the issue of indiscriminate land-grabbing. Both the Ogun and the Lagos State governments have passed laws to prohibit seizure of land by force.”

06/05/2019

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