BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI
The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has asked the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, to protect the integrity of the nation’s judiciary by immediately filing a criminal contempt charge against Senator Iyiola Omisore over his recent attacks against the President of the Court of Appeal and other members of the court.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told the minister that failure to act in defence of the integrity of the judiciary would mean that he had failed in his primary responsibility to the nation’s justice system.

‘’While we are not unmindful of the fact that the AGF is an appointee of the PDP-controlled Federal Government, he must in this instance rise above partisan politics and immediately file an action in criminal contempt against Omisore, otherwise he would not only have failed in his primary responsibility as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, but he will also be undermining the very foundation of the rule of law and democracy,’’ the party stated.

ACN drew the attention of Adoke to recent newspapers advertorials in which Omisore allegedly attacked the integrity of the judiciary and, in particular, the reputation and character of Hon Justice Ayo Salami, President of the Court of Appeal, Hon Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, and all the members of the Appeal Panel that decided Osun State governorship election petition.

Quoting from the advertorial, ACN stated as follows:

“It is now abundantly clear that Ayo Salami’s Court of Appeal has a special squad that he deploys to prosecute Action Congress of Nigeria’s (read Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s) agenda.”

The ACN said Omisore’s irresponsible frontal, crude and unsubstantiated attacks on the Court of Appeal and its members constituted contempt of the court.

‘’If it (contempt of court) had been committed in the course of the proceeding, it would have amounted to contempt in the face of the court in which case the Judge would have put him in the dock  and imposed sanctions until he has purged himself of the contempt.”

‘’However where in this instance it is not contempt in the face of the court, it is the duty of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to file an action against Iyiola Omisore. It is the constitutional duty of the AGF in such situations to protect the integrity of the court and our judicial system by filing an action which enables the court to exercise its disciplinary jurisdiction.

‘’It is important to note here that when an individual, no matter how highly placed, is allowed to make such scurrilous accusations and verbal abuse against the judiciary without consequences, then the greatest havoc would have been done to our system of justice,’’ the party warned.

ACN said while Omisore is entitled to his opinion and anger over the judgement, which he sees as ruining – if not ending – his inordinate ambition of ruling Osun state, he simply went overboard in his resort to verbal attacks and threats against judicial officers, which must attract immediate action from the security agencies, given Omisore’s record of alleged criminal violence.