The Trial of Aondoakaa - KAYODE AJULO says former AGF Michael Aondoakaa’s comments published in THISDAY LAWYER last week, ridiculed the nation’s administration of justice and that the NBA must call him to order
It is so excruciating for me to write a reaction to the ignominious and contemptuous rant of Michael Aondoakaa SAN, the erstwhile, embattled and

infamous Attorney-General of Federation over His Lordship, Justice Adeniyi Ademola’s judgment declaring him unfit to hold public office and calling on the NBA’s Disciplinary Committee to sanction him.

My initial challenge is not on how or what to write but how to reply someone who has wittingly and/or unwittingly risen to the enviable position of virtually every legal practitioner’s ultimate aspiration and who in all ramifications ought to be a shinning paradigm of the noble profession particularly to the young members of the Bar - my very constituency - but who has pathetically and recurrently striven to entrench the ethics of what a lawyer ought not to be.

As usual, Aondoakaa hawked lies and unqualified falsehood targeted at uninitiated members of the Nigerian public who are great in number to massage his over-bloated ego as the learned and discerning public laughed over his imprudence.

I however cannot be enthused over Aondoakaa’s seeming recklessness as it touches on the very foundation of the administration of justice which he cannot help but subscribe to.

To be more precise, the statement of facts in HON. EMMANUEL BASSEY OBOT v ATTORNEY GENERAL OF FEDERATION (MICHEAL AONDOAKAA) as delivered by Justice Ademola centred on one of alleged numerous misconducts and abuse of office by Aondoakaa while in office as Attorney-General of the Federation.

In the history of Nigeria, the issue of crime is a major caveat that has so deeply eaten into our nation psyche, even the once acclaimed institution of crime fighters who were in the foyer of power as epitomised by Aondoakaa’s antics while he was the chief law officer of the federation by obstructing the stringent committed effort to work against corruption.

The Attorney-General of the Federation as the epitome and regulator of legal authority and justice and having been established by the provision of the Constitution for the utmost underscoring of the significance of the office and the occupier, it is therefore worrisome that a person in the mould and disposition of Michael Aondoakaa was allowed to emerge in the office despite the array of the best our profession can offer.

In what appears to be a rehash of failed institution, the Nigerian system propped up Michael Aondoakaa, who with brute impudence played to the gallery, polluted the Ministry of Justice by his lack of dexterity of law and administration.

He stuck out the image of Nigeria on an unpalatable platform of highly integrated mismanagement of power and position particularly when there was much to be done in Ministry he was saddled with.

This was such an important national issue that it was so surprising that Aondoakaa as Attorney-General of the Federation suddenly forgot the interpretation given to both iIIcrime and the law and failed to distinguish same thereby desecrating that sacred office to the point that for the first time in our history as a nation the acronym, AGF, was widely referred to as Attorney-General of FRAUD!.

While his tenure lasted, his presence in the presidential cabinet was a big threat to Yar’Adua’s regime as his conscience was snared with an attitude of greed.

It was therefore not a surprise when Aondoakaa was the first casualty of the cabinet reshuffle made by President Goodluck Jonathan with resounding accolades from every sector of Nigeria.

As I write this piece, I cannot but recall several alleged ignoble roles of Aondoakaa in blatant obstruction of justice; as a chief law officer he was reported to have fed Nigerians with lies.

I also recall with great regret and concerns my encounters with him in several courts outings particularly in various suits initiated by my humble self and other patriots over the need for the transmission of the then Vice-President to substantial President upon the absence and health situation of the late President Yar’Adua.

In and outside the courtroom Aondoakaa was mean, shabby and I must say uncouth with unrefined composition and expression of simple English language that made me sometimes to question his elevation to the inner bar.

The question was as a result of my modest but eventful and extensive years of practice where I have been privileged to either respectfully bout with the likes of G.O.K. Ajayi, the late Philip Umeadi, the late Bola Ige, the late Jonny Okwonkwo, Afe Babalola, Ebun Sofunde, Onyechi Ikpeazu, Kanu Agabi, Gboyega Awomolo, Wole Olanipekun, J.B. Daudu, J.K. Gadzama, Alex Izinyon, Kabiru Turaki, Chris Uche, Anthony Idigbe, P.I.N. Ikweto, D.D. Dodo, S.I. Ameh and other learned senior colleagues who conducted and expressed themselves in the finest traditions and ethics of the bar that make one to pray ceaselessly and hope against hope to become of them.

And when it is expected that Aondoakaa would take his extant fortune as a good time for sober reflection of his life and work, he however for the umpteenth time launched a verbal attack on a principled judge who was merely dispensing justice without fear or favour in accordance with the dictates of the law.

While Aondoakaa’s constitutionally guaranteed right of expression is inured to him, such exercise of the right ought and must be done within the confines of our law and etiquette of our profession.

Going by his standing at the bar, Michael Aondoakaa need not be told that the respected Judge is part and parcel of an institution of the administration of justice which we all cherish, which the former Minister’s verbal vituperation is apparently targeted to bring the honoured Judge and entire administration of justice in Nigeria to ridicule.

Aondoakaa’s diatribe of disparaging Honourable Justice Ademola as an irresponsible judge is nothing but contempt not only to the judge but the entire administration of justice and I therefore call on the NBA and other stakeholders in our justice system to call Aondoakaa to order with appropriate sanction.

I therefore urge and appeal to Honourable Justice Ademola to look at Aondoakaa’s utterances and demeanor as that of a drowning litigant who is ever ready to faultily blame his self-inflicted misfortune on the presiding judge of his case.

•Ajulo writes from Abuja

TRAGEDY OF A TAINTED LAWYER:
Aondoakaa hawked lies and unqualified falsehood targeted at uninitiated members of the Nigerian public who are great in number to massage his over-bloated ego as the learned and discerning public laughed over his imprudence.
TRAGEDY OF JUDGMENT OF A SIMPLE & PASSIVE PRESIDENT
While his tenure lasted, his presence in the presidential cabinet was a big threat to Yar’Adua’s regime as his conscience was snared with an attitude of greed.
This was such an important national issue that it was so surprising that Aondoakaa as Attorney-General of the Federation suddenly forgot the interpretation given to both iIIcrime and the law and failed to distinguish same thereby desecrating that sacred office to the point that for the first time in our history as a nation the acronym, AGF, was widely referred to as Attorney-General of FRAUD!.
A TRAGEDY & ONE OF HIS SEVERAL CONSEQUENCES:
I also recall with great regret and concerns my encounters with him in several courts outings particularly in various suits initiated by my humble self and other patriots over the need for the transmission of the then Vice-President to substantial President upon the absence and health situation of the late President Yar’Adua.
In and outside the courtroom Aondoakaa was mean, shabby and I must say uncouth with unrefined composition and expression of simple English language that made me sometimes to question his elevation to the inner bar.
TRAGEDY OF QUESTIONS:
In and outside the courtroom Aondoakaa was mean, shabby and I must say uncouth with unrefined composition and expression of simple English language that made me sometimes to question his elevation to the inner bar.

The question was as a result of my modest but eventful and extensive years of practice where I have been privileged to either respectfully bout with the likes of G.O.K. Ajayi, the late Philip Umeadi, the late Bola Ige, the late Jonny Okwonkwo, Afe Babalola, Ebun Sofunde, Onyechi Ikpeazu, Kanu Agabi, Gboyega Awomolo, Wole Olanipekun, J.B. Daudu, J.K. Gadzama, Alex Izinyon, Kabiru Turaki, Chris Uche, Anthony Idigbe, P.I.N. Ikweto, D.D. Dodo, S.I. Ameh and other learned senior colleagues who conducted and expressed themselves in the finest traditions and ethics of the bar that make one to pray ceaselessly and hope against hope to become of them.