Justice Liman Rumored INEC Appointment, FOI Executive Director Lambasts Critics

Francis Onoiribholo

Aigbokhan President Esq, the Executive Director, Freedom of Information (FoI) Counsel has described Prof. Farooq Adamu Kperogi’s recent commentary on the rumored appointment of Hon. Justice Abdullahi Mohammed Liman, JCA, as Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Chairman as ‘inappropriate accesement” of the honourable justice which has raised more eyebrows than a web of resistance.

Aigbokhan President in a statement
titled “Re: Tinubu, Next INEC Boss, and Liman Controversy” and made available to newsmen in Benin stated that Farooq Adamu Kperogi, a Nigerian-American professor, author, media scholar, newspaper columnist, blogger and activist in one of his recent commentary criticised the rumoured proposed appointment of Justice Liman as the next INEC Chairman.

According to Aigbokhan, “What is striking in Kperogi’s portrait of Justice Liman is the reliance on press clippings over judicial records, instead of engaging with the court’s reasoning or the National Judicial Council’s findings.

“Yet most of the allegations he recycles were either dismissed by the NJC or upheld by appellate review, a fact that undercuts the charge of bias he so eagerly presses

“A more diligent inquiry would have shown that in 2014, Justice Liman delivered the landmark ruling affirming prisoners’ right to vote, a rare and powerful affirmation of democratic inclusion. That omission is telling.

“By leaving out one of the most illuminating contributions to Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence, Kperogi presents only the shadows of Justice Liman’s career while leaving out one of his most illuminating contributions to Nigeria’s electoral rights discourse.

“Why does Kperogi turn a blind eye to the activist judge’s progressive record, as though controversy eclipses every contribution?”

FOI executive director also noted, “the conversation on whether Nigeria’s electoral framework is robust enough to withstand partisan appointments is apt, but Kperogi’s conclusion that Justice Liman is a partisan figure lacks demonstrable fact.

“By reducing a long and complex judicial career to the label of partisanship, Kperogi offers a caricature of his thought process and discipline.

“His article misses the chance to interrogate what institutional reforms could safeguard INEC against capture, no matter who is appointed. If his aim was truly to warn against the dangers of politicising INEC.

“The real challenge, therefore, is not rumors about who Tinubu may or may not want but whether the appointee is strong enough to withstand pressure and ensure that elections in Nigeria are credible, accountable, innovative, and inclusive” he said..

The Nigerian-American professor,
Aigbokhan said, belongs to that rare fraction of a fraction, the finest judicial minds of northern Nigeria, adding that the journey of his career has bent toward widening access to justice, not to weaken the system but to fortify it, making it sturdier, more transparent, and more accountable to the rule of law.

“As a development lawyer, I count him among the finest judges before whom I have ever argued. He does not settle for cosmetic fixes; he treats the soil to bring the roots back to life, instead of painting green the rotten leaves of a dying tree.

“Should his rumored appointment be confirmed, it would stand as a providential response to the long-neglected plight of inmates whose constitutional right to be included in the voters’ register remains unfulfilled” he declared.

Aigbokhan President Esq.is a development lawyer and is the Gani Fawehinmi Impact Awardee and the Black History Month Nominee, MLDI, UK, 2023.