I never wrote judgment for any judge -Yusuf Ali

Former chairman, Section on Law Practice of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mallam Yusuf Ali SAN, on Tuesday debunked allegations making the round that he wrote and handed a judgment to an Ilorin High Court judge, Justice Sikiru Oyinloye, in a case involving SaharaReporters and the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

The erudite lawyer denied being aware that such a case was ongoing at the High Court, Ilorin because his law firm was never briefed and as such couldn’t have written judgment in a matter he knows nothing about.

Ali, who spoke exclusively with Daily Times yesterday said that the only period he wrote rulings as a legal practitioner was in 1996 and 1997 where he sat as a member of the Kwara state election petition tribunal and the appellate tribunal respectively.

Ali said: “My attention was drawn to the publication yesterday (Monday) and I’m going to sue those involved in this character assassination. In all my life, I’ve never offered bribe, neither do I take bribe. I know the Senate President as a friend and brother but I don’t know anything about the case being mentioned and I’ve no interaction whatsoever with the judge in question. All what SaharaReporters said about me is a lie from the pit of hell. ”

A news online in the social media had indicted Yusuf Ali SAN, in a story captioned: “Sowore of Sahara Reporters laments As Court Freezes his N236m”, where it alleged that the Ilorin-based legal practitioner approached the judge, handed him a written judgment and told him to go ahead and give a judgment awarding N4 billion against SaharaReporters.

According to the publication written by Elombah.com and circulated online stated that Sowore declared in a statement that: “We have the reason the ‘Jankara’ judge in Ilorin procured by Bukola Saraki could not produce the record of proceedings in his own court.

“The Chief Judge of Kwara state upon receipt of a copy of Femi Falana’s letter requesting the records has found out that the ‘records’ were incomplete.

“For instance, the judge, Sikiru Oyinloye, had adjourned his last sitting of the case to affirm ‘proof of service’ but along the line, lawyers loyal to Saraki, led by Yusuf Alli (SAN) approached him, handed him a written judgment and told him to go ahead and give a judgment awarding N4billion against SaharaReporters.

“When Oyinloye told them it will be tough for him, they promised to “handle the consequences” using their connection and contacts within the Nigerian judiciary. At the point of giving that ruling, Oyinloye had not even ascertained proof of service of the summons of the purported libel lawsuit against SaharaReporters and myself, but yet he creatively issued a judgment without fulfilling the processes he laid down in his previous rulings on the matter.

“Our lawyers have now been grudgingly told to come to get the available “record of proceedings” by 11 am tomorrow.

“As you all know, this is a long existential battle to liberate the robbed and the oppressed against whom a crooked judiciary and rogue lawyers have been arrayed over the years in every corner of our nation and which have long been championed by our collective efforts.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki , had won a 4 billion naira judgement against Sahara reporters which the online news media failed to pay.

Saraki therefore applied for and got a temporary garnishee order against Sahara reporters accounts at UBA and GTB.
Elombah.com yesterday reported that an Ilorin High Court, presided over by Justice Adeyinka Oyinloye, has reportedly freezed the bank accounts of online news media, Sahara Reporters.

Documents seen by Elombah.com show the court gave the order on Tuesday, July 25.

The Senate President had, through his lawyer, Babatunde Olomu, asked for the intervention of the court following over a series of libelous stories published against Saraki on Sahara Reporters in between September and December 2015.

Both Sowore and Sahara Reporters were joined as defendants in the suit marked as KWS/23/2017.

The publisher has reportedly not been able to access their bank accounts since the court’s decision.
On Wednesday, June 28, the court had ruled that Sowore pay a sum of N4 billion as damage to Saraki for the alleged libelous publications.”