THE year 2015 was an eventful and controversial year as it affects the Nigerian judiciary. It witnessed landmark cases and activities that shaped it across the federation.

Interestingly the judiciary in the year under review made efforts to restore public confidence though there were allegations of professional misconducts on the part of some Judges and lawyers.
This must have informed the reasons why in March, Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee stripped a senior advocate of Nigeria of his SAN title and withdrew his practicing license.

EVENTS:
In November, the National Judicial Council ordered the compulsory retirement of Justice Akanbi Lambo of Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Towards the end of 2015, a Lagos High Court in Ikeja, sentenced a registrar of same court, Oluronke Rosolu, to a prison term of 10 years for aiding a fraudster to defraud a litigant.

In his own reaction to question on how the judiciary fared in 2015, a Lagos-based lawyer and Human rights activist, Ebun Olu Adegboruwa, described the condition of judges as very pathetic that requires urgent government intervention.
His words: “Go to the judges and see what they are going through, you will pity them. There are judges in Lagos State that drive themselves, no personal driver, no personal assistant and with very poor office facilities. Their salaries are sometimes delayed, and in most cases they are overworked”.

The lawyer also complained about why the budget of the judiciary should be channelled through the Ministry of Justice, which according to him, is an infringement on the independence of the judiciary.
The Judicial sector was rocked by industrial unrest in the month of January which disrupted activities at courts for several months before things returned to normal.

The Judiciary tried to manage the cases before the elections in order not to allow matters degenerate to the extent of truncating the 2015 general elections.

In February, the administration of Babatunde Fashola, contributed to infrastructural development of the judiciary in Lagos State, with newl High Court and Magistrate Court blocks in Ikeja and Ogba.
Also in May, the Judiciary had a remarkable revolution in the criminal justice system, that brought about the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.

The purpose of the Act is to ensure that the system of administration of criminal justice in Nigeria promotes efficient management of criminal justice institutions, speedy dispensation of justice, protection of the society from crime and protection of the rights and interests of the suspect, the defendant and the victim. The Act has 495 sections with detailed provisions on arrest, warrants, investigation, trial, conviction, imprisonment, plea bargain, community service, parole, suspended sentence, etc.

CASES:
In April, the Federal High Court in Benin convicted one Michael said to be the younger brother of a former governor, Lucky Igbiniedon for laundering N25billion belonging to the state. He was ordered by the court to spend two years in jail or pay a fine of N3million for the offence.
The Supreme Court in May 2015, ordered the Federal Government and the National Assembly to maintain status quo in the constitution amendment exercise.

The court ruled in a suit brought by the then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, against the two chambers of the National Assembly over the lawmakers’ insistence on amending the Constitution despite the former President’s objection.

The month of May also witnessed the extradition and failed extradition of  a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, Mr Emmanuel Okoyomon and Senator Buruji Kashamu.
Okoyomon extradition was ordered by Justice Chukwu of the Federal High court Abuja, to the United Kingdom to face charges of bribery and money laundering which was alleged to have been committed in 2008.

While Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court Lagos, in a separate judgment in May and June barred the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), from extraditing Kashamu to the United States of America where he was said to be wanted for drug related offences.

The High Court sitting in Ikeja in June struck out a N25.7 billion criminal charge brought against a former Managing Director of Bank PHB, Francis Atuche, his wife, Elizabeth and a former Financial Officer of the bank, Mr. Ugo Anyanwu. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had instituted a 27-count charge including stealing and conspiracy against Atuche; his wife, Elizabeth; and the bank’s Chief Financial Officer, Anyanwu.

In July 2015, hope of the impeached governor of Adamawa state, Murtala Nyako, being reinstated immediately was dashed by a Federal High Court sitting in Yola as the judge, Bilikus Aliyu, dismissed a suit instituted by Nyako claiming he was wrongly removed as governor of Adamawa State. He was later arraigned in July with his son, Abdul-Aziz, by EFCC for alleged N29bn fraud.
Another landmark arraignment within this period was the case of the six Central Bank officials who were involved in the N8billion scam. They were arraigned by the EFCC before a Federal High Court in Ibadan for allegedly stealing and recirculing mutilated naira notes meant for destruction.

In the same period, EFCC also arraigned a former
 governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido with his two sons, Aminu Sule Lamido
 and Mustapha Sule Lamido, Aminu Wada Abubakar and Batholomew Darlington
 Agoha, before Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on
 a 27-count amended charge bordering on corruption and money laundering.

The other companies arraigned along with them were companies through which
 they allegedly perpetrated the fraud.
Lamido and his co-accused had been arraigned before Justice Evelyn 
Anyadike of the Federal High Court, Kano State, on July 9, 2015 for
 allegedly misappropriating the sum of N1.2billion funds belonging to Jigawa State.

Another former governor, Ikedi Ohakim was also arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja in July on a three-count charge bordering on alleged N270million fraud. While his former counterpart and ex-governor of Enugu state, Chimaroke Nnamani, forfeited four of his companies and its assets valued at N5billion following an order by Justice Yunusa Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Lagos.

The case of a former Head of Service of the Federation , Stephen Oronsanye came up in July wherein he was arraigned along side others before Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja for N1.2billion.
With the anti corruption war of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), in September arraigned the current Senate President, Bukola Saraki for false assets declaration which he was alleged to have made when he was Kwara State governor.

The CCB also arraigned in November, former Minister of Niger-Delta, Godsday Orubebe, for bribery and false declaration of assets before Justice Danladi Umar.

November 2015 witnessed the nullification of the election of a former senate president, Senator David Mark, by the Court of Appeal sitting in Makurdi Division, the Court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct fresh elections in the Benue South senatorial district within 90 days.

Mark’s victory at the March 2015 National Assembly elections, was challenged by Daniel Onjeh of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who petitioned the Benue State Legislative elections tribunal asking for the cancellation of the election and an order detailing INEC to conduct fresh election in the district.

The Election Petition Tribunal in November nullified the election of Darius Ishaku as governor of Taraba State on the premise of breach in his nomination as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the April polls.
The tribunal therefore ruled that the PDP votes in the election were merely vitiated, and then declared that the APC candidate, Aisha Alhassan, be declared the winner of the election.

But the appeal court reversed the decision of the tribunal and returned Ishaku as governor.
The case of the former director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, and seven other staff of the agency by the EFCC was instituted in December.

They were accused to have allegedly conspired to convert and launder several sums of money running into billions of naira under the guise of providing security intelligence around the maritime domain.

Another major case recorded in 2015, was the arms deal scam involving a former Security Adviser to the immediate past President Jonathan’ administration, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), who was arraigned in September on one count charge of illegal possession of firearms before Justice Adeniyi Ademola of a Federal High Court in Abuja. The charge was later amended to a four-count charge.

He was later arraigned in December with a former Director of Finance and Administration in the office of the NSA, Shuaibu Salisu and Aminu Baba-Kusa before Justice Yusuf Buba of the same court on a separate nineteen-count charge of misappropriation of N32bn meant for the procurement of arms to fight the Boko Haram insurgents in the North East part of the country.

In a similar case, former Chairman of Daar Communications Plc, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, was also arraigned before Justice Gabriel Kolawole, for alleged diversification of N2.1billion meant for the procurement of arms.