As the president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Prince Ajibola had a running battle with Chief Gani Fawehinmi, who was blacklisted by the NBA.
At the inception of Buhari junta, Special military Tribunals under the chairmanship of military officers were established to try “corrupt” former public officers. The sittings would be in camera, except for arraignments and judgments. The Ajibola-led NBA kicked against it and decided to boycott the tribunals. It wondered why non-judicial persons should head the tribunals and their sittings in camera.
At its meeting, Gani kicked against the position of boycott, saying that he supported the war against corruption. He was blacklisted and he took NBA to court over the boycott and won.
While the matter was being dragged on, with the negative publicity, the first indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola tried to intervene. He called a meeting. Gani insisted he would attend the meeting on two conditions.
1. He wanted to know who would attend from the NBA side so that he could do his investigation on them. 2. He wanted to record the proceedings. I’m not sure he was obliged the second condition but l know that Gani attended the meeting with a secret pen-like recorder. The meeting couldn’t resolve the issue until it was finally decided in court in favour of Gani.
I knew for a fact that the late Judge Bola Ajibola didn’t receive salaries when he was the Attorney-General of the Federation. He had a standing instruction for it to be paid out as charity.
