Omeri’s involvement in Jonathan campaign, abuse of office, says Isa Salami

Former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, on Wednesday, queried the rationale behind the involvement of the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mike Omeri, on the campaign team of President Goodluck Jonathan.
To him, such an involvement is an abuse of office.
Salami, who spoke at a public lecture in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, also lamented that the Nigerian judiciary has succumbed to pressure from politicians.
He argued that it was morally wrong for Omeri to be involved in Jonathan’s campaign, wondering what will happen to him if the president loses in the February 14 election.
He said: “We have a problem now in convincing the voters to come and vote. That is why they are not collecting their voter cards. There is apathy and the apathy must have been generated by various reasons, failure of their expectations and the failure of agencies of government established to make their expectations realised.
“The military and other arms of security behave as if they are part of the candidate. They are not. They are agencies and institutions of federal government. And institution of federal government is different from the candidate who incidentally is the president. The other day, the Chairman of NOA was in President Jonathan’s campaign. Is he playing his role as the agency of the federal government?
“Again, the judiciary unfortunately has been intimidated. There is no doubt about it, judiciary has been intimidated. And, therefore, if you vote and see anything to your vote contrary to your will, do you have any remedy? The judiciary, for one reason or the other, has sort of succumbed to pressure of the power that be. So, why do I vote when my vote will not count? In fact, the judiciary in the past had corrected this error but now who is there?
“We have amended the Constitution to suit our way. Now, we have amended the Constitution that the election tribunal must not exceed 180 days. For Kwara State, for instance, we have one election tribunal to handle the governorship petitions. I do not know how many petitions will emanate from that. We have the senatorial, House of Representatives and the Houses of Assembly petitions. Can this tribunal finish all these within 180 days?
“Some lawyers have taken this aspect from lower courts to the Supreme Court, arguing that it impedes on right to fair hearing and the right to fair hearing is entrenched in the constitution.
“The CJN at that time said that if they are not satisfied, they should go to the National Assembly. It is not the work of the litigants to go to the National Assembly to get the law amended. It is the function of the court to strike out the law and get the National Assembly to comply or to find a solution to the order of the Supreme Court.
“So, this is one of the reasons I think people are not collecting their voter cards. In our voter education, we can persuade them to go and collect their voter card”.