By Ishola Balogun & Chirs Ochayi
Following the decision of the NJC after a session it held in Abuja Thursday, urging President Jonathan to re-instate the suspended the President Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, the Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Osun state have hailed the call for re-in statement of Justice Salami just as the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to swiftly reinstate the President Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami to office without further delay.

Operating under the umbrella body of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, the parties warned President Jonathan that failure to act as swiftly as he did before may fuel the suspicion of double standard regrettably eroding his image.

The CNPP’s statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said “it is of the candid view that Justice Salami was hounded because of the presidential election petition – CPC vs PDP, which he presided over then at the Appeal Court.

Governor Fayemi who described the development as “triumph of truth” said in a statement yesterday that Justice Salami should also be commended for demonstrating an uncommon courage in upholding the truth.

Fayemi in the statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Olayinka Oyebode, said: “even as the NJC should be commended for insisting on the truth in spite of subtle and overt intimidation, Salami’s only ‘sin’ was that he was courageous enough to speak truth in the face of persecution.”

The statement described Salami as a man who spoke truth to power by insisting that vote robbers must not go scot free, noting that his recall has not only vindicated him, it has also put a final seal on the machination of election riggers.

CNPP asks NJC to apologise

Meanwhile, the CNPP has asked the National Judicial Council, NJC, to apologize for taking wrong decision, the parties queried what happened between the nine months interval which made the NJC to reverse itself?

According to them, “in this context, we urge the NJC to apologize to Nigerians for not complying diligently with the laws of the land, for discrediting the judiciary and for gross impropriety.

“We call on President Jonathan to swiftly reinstate Justice Salami; for failure to act as swiftly as he did before may fuel the suspicion of double standard regrettably eroding his image.”

“May we also ask, was it not paradoxical that NJC acquitted the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu who arrested court judgment in the case of Sokoto State Governorship matter at the Appeal Court and suspended Justice Salami for refusing to subvert justice?

“We had severally warned of the danger of monumental corruption bedeviling the judiciary – Food is Ready Justice System – which has eaten deep into the fabric of our judiciary and by extension ravaged the Election Tribunals.

It would be recalled that on 19th August, 2011, the National Judicial Council, at its emergency meeting, “suspended”

Hon Justice Isa Ayo Salami, the President of the Court of Appeal, from office, directing him to immediately hand-over his headship of the Court of Appeal to Hon Justice Dalhatu Adamu, JCA.   He was harassed and eventually suspended when he had barely a year to retire from the Court of Appeal.

He was alleged to have lied on oath against the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu. Salami had also in an affidavit he deposed before a Federal High Court in Abuja, alleged that the ex-CJN pressurized him to pervert justice in a gubernatorial election appeal dispute involving Sokoto State.