Court Reinstate Sacked Chief Registrar

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja and presided over by Justice Adamu Bello, on Thursday ordered for the reinstatement of Mr. Bode Thomas, the erstwhile Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal who was compulsorily retired in March, 2009 by the Federal Judicial Service Commission.

He retired following a memo raised by the immediate past President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdullahi, alleging serious misconduct on the part of the Chief Registrar.

The court held that the investigative panel which was set up by the Federal Judicial Service Commission to investigate the allegations levelled against Mr. Bode Thomas did not give him the opportunity to defend himself appropriately, thereby infringing on his constitutionally guaranteed right to fair hearing.

The judge slammed the Chairman of the panel, Mr. Rabana Lawal, a senior advocate of Nigeria, who the court observed, ought to know the importance of allowing somebody who had risen to the position of Chief Registrar of an appellate court, an opportunity to save his career of over 20 years, by affording him every necessary ingredient of fair hearing at the panel’s hearing before recommending that he be compulsorily retired from service.

Justice Bello also faulted the presence of the former President of the Court of Appeal at the Federal Judicial Service Commission’s session where the recommendation of the investigative panel was deliberated upon and accepted.

The court noted that the presence of Justice Abdullahi was tantamount to him sitting in judgment in his own case, more so, since his absence would not have affected the Commission’s members present at the session forming a quorum to take a decision on the matter.

The court also observed that the memo issued to Mr. Bode Thomas by the former President of the Court of Appeal wherein the Justice stated inter alia, “that I have for a long time tried to contain the behaviour of the Chief Registrar but could not. I can no longer work with him”, was what set the tone for the investigative panel, which went ahead to conduct their hearing without allowing the Chief Registrar to be present while the 14 witnesses assembled by the former PCA to testify against him gave evidence to the panel.

The court further held that if the panel had allowed Mr. Thomas to confront his accusers as provided for in the principle of fair hearing, substantial justice would have been done to the him, more so, since one of the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him was withdrawn when Mr. Thomas accidentally stumbled upon the panel sitting over his matter during a visit to the office.

On that occasion, one of the witnesses had just finished telling the panel of how Mr. Thomas harassed her sexually when Mr. Thomas barged into the conference room.

He was subsequently directed by the panel members to respond to that allegation.

He presented his own version of the alleged sexual harassment which led to the eventual delisting of that allegation as part of his crimes.

The court was of the view that had Mr. Thomas allowed to be present during the testimonies of his traducers, he would have been able to provide his own side of the story, but that very essential ingredient of fair hearing was denied him.

While declaring the purported compulsory retirement of Mr. Bode Thomas as the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal on March 2009, as illegal, null and void, the court ordered that he be immediately reinstated and paid all the entitlements that would have accrued to him if he had been in active service and also granted all the reliefs sought by Mr. Bode Thomas.
By Nnamdi Felix/Abuja