Justice Dahiru Saleh: 10 facts you need to know about the judge who truncated MKO Abiola’s presidential dream

On Thursday May 7, 2020, the Nigerian media was awash with reports of the death of Justice Dahiru Saleh, the former Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) who died at 81 on Thursday May 7. Many news platforms described him as the man who annulled the election that would have made Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola the President of Nigeria in 1993, but unfortunately Abiola’s dream never saw the light of the day.

In June 1993, a group known as the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) coordinated by Brigadier Haliru Akilu, Chief Arthur Nzeribe (a former Senator from Imo State) and one Abimbola Davies, after failing in their first attempt to stop the election billed for June 12, 1993 from holding, approached the FCT High Court headed by Saleh to stop further announcements of the results.

The night before the election on June 11, late Justice Bassey Ikpeme of a high court had ordered the suspension of the election while ruling on the case filed by ABN members asking the court to stop the then National Electoral Commission (NEC) from holding the election.  Prof Humphrey Nwosu who headed NEC had insisted the election would be held based on Decree 13 of 1993 which ousted the courts’ jurisdiction with regard to creating impediments to the transition to civil rule programme. Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was leading his rival Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC) with the results released so far by NEC when ABN members approached a high court again in Abuja to stop the announcement of results.

“Justice Saleh was around to handle it, he didn’t assign it to any other judge. He decided to hear the matter himself,” Richard Akinnola wrote in his book ‘A Mandate Buried Alive’. “Though the suit filed was Motion on Notice, where the other party, that is, NEC would be heard, Saleh decided to hear the matter ex parte in Chambers, stopping further announcements of the results.”

Saleh gave the judgement ordering NEC to halt the release of the election results on the grounds that the election ought not to have been held in the first place. His action was the foundation upon which Babangida’s annulment of the election was based. Asked by The Interview in 2016 if Babangida influenced the ruling, he said “The former president did nothing of the sort.”

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He added: “If Abiola wasn’t happy with the case, he could have appealed it to the Court of Appeal, to the Supreme Court.”

Here are 10 facts you need to know about the late Judge:

1. He was born on August 22, 1939; attended the Azare Primary School from 1948 to 1951 and then proceeded to the Azare Senior Primary School in 1952 where he was till 1955 before proceeding to the Barewa College, Zaria in Kaduna state from 1956-1969.
2. He studied law at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 1961 to 1962 and went to the Council of Legal Education, London (Middle Temple) between 1962 and 1965.
3. He began work as Pupil State Counsel Northern Nigeria in 1966 and worked in several places before becoming the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice from 1976 – 1978.
4. He was Judge of the Federal High Court in Sokoto State until he was appointed as the Chief Judge of FCT, Abuja, a position he occupied from 1984 to 2003 when he was kicked out of office.
5. He was the first Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja and also the first senior judge in Nigeria’s history of elected government to be removed in accordance with constitutional procedure.
6. He spent nearly 20 years as CJ of FCT and during that time he claimed he developed the judicial structures in Abuja after starting the High Court with two judges.
7. His elder brother Aminu Saleh (died in July 2015) was the Secretary to the Military Government of General Sani Abacha. Aminu was reported to have hidden the report of Justice Kayode Eso’s commission which recommended the removal of his younger brother Dahiru.
8. As FCT Chief Judge, he ordered the release of Mohammed Abacha, son of late dictator General Sani Abacha from detention during Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency.
9. Shortly after setting Mohammed Abacha free, Obasanjo’s administration dug up Justice Kayode Eso’s report after almost 10 years and sent it to the Senate. The Senate voted to remove Saleh as CJ of FCT in February 2003.
10. Until his death, he was a traditional chieftaincy title holder of ‘Mutawalle’ of Katagum emirate in Katagum, a local government area of Bauchi state.