Human rights advocate and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, has released portions of the 59-page report of the National Judicial Council panel that investigated allegations against then-Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, and then-President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, in 2011.
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/TheNigerialawyer-WhatsApp-Channel1.jpg")
The release comes as a follow-up to Odinkalu’s sharp rebuttal of Justice Salami’s recent remarks describing Peter Obi’s 2023 presidential candidacy as a “judicial error.”
Taking to X on Saturday, Odinkalu wrote: “I have managed to locate the 2011 report of the @njcNig Committee that investigated the allegations against then CJN Aloysius Katsina-Alu & then PCA, Isa Ayo Salami. It runs into 59 pages. Former President of the @CourtOfAppealNG, Umaru Abdullahi, chaired the Committee.”
Odinkalu described the contents of the report as significant, noting that the lack of credible rebuttal was even more telling than the allegations themselves.
“The disclosures & claims in the report are mouth-watering. But it is the absence of either indignation or credible rebuttal of the claims that is even more revealing,” Odinkalu wrote.
“For an illustration, take the sequence of allegations concerning the #CallLogs of exchanges between Isa Ayo Salami & the lawyers of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. Here are the relevant parts of the report.”
He concluded: “I promised that I will not editorialise. So, please reach your own conclusions about Isa Ayo Salami.”
According to the document released by Odinkalu, a Five-Man Fact Finding Panel was set up at the 5th Emergency Meeting of the National Judicial Council held on 9th March, 2011, to look into petitions against the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of the Court of Appeal concerning the Sokoto, Ekiti and Osun States Governorship Appeals.
The Panel was chaired by Hon. Justice Umaru Abdullahi, CON, former President of the Court of Appeal, with members including:
- Hon. Justice E. O. Ayoola, CON
- Hon. Justice D. O. Edozie, CON
- Hon. Justice M. E. Akpiroroh, JCA (Rtd)
- Mrs. Rakiya Sarki Ibrahim, MON
The Panel was initially given two months to complete its assignment but was extended by another month due to the numerous witnesses that appeared before it.
The report detailed allegations that Justice Salami and other justices were in “close telephone contact by voice or SMS with the counsel to AC candidate and official of the party” throughout September to October 2010 when judges wrote and delivered the judgment in Ekiti, and up till January 2011.
According to the document, by a letter dated 14th February 2011, copies of Call Data Records (call logs) were forwarded to the Panel as evidence.
The petitioner alleged that “the unethical communications were directed at the invidious act to pervert the course of justice, and to achieve the pre-determined purpose for removing me from office.”
The report documented allegations that “the President of the Court of Appeal was, has been, and continues to be in regular telephone contact (at least) with the following Action Congress of Nigeria chieftains and institutions: Lai Mohammed, Olatunji Kayode Olowolafe, Hakeem-Muri Okunola; Lagos State government; Lagos State Government (CSO).”
The document further stated: “Even more damning is the fact that Justice Ayo Salami was regularly communicating with the following legal practitioners, who represented the Action Congress of Nigeria at Election Appeal Tribunals at various times: Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, Akintola Adeniyi, SAN, Nnaemeka Ngige, SAN, Rickey Tarfa SAN, Ibrahim Abdullahi, SAN.”
The allegations described “the invidious plan to snatch victory by fraud was hatched in the course of those illicit interactions” and that “a certain Tunji Ijaya… obviously the go between in many of Justice Salami’s judicial deals, deserves to be probed further.”
The petitioners alleged that “the course of justice was perverted in the Osun Governorship Appeal judgment” and that “the Osun Appeal judgment was financially induced.”
They stated that “a detailed transcript of the text messages and voice calls between the numbers we have provided and many others on the call logs will complete the picture of how the course of justice was perverted.”
In a response dated March 3, 2011, signed by Justice Salami, PCA; Justice Ogunbiyi, PCA; Justice Ariwoola, JCA; Justice Nweze, JCA and Justice Jauro, JCA, they dealt extensively with the issue of call logs from September 2010 to January 2011.
They contended, among other things, that they “cannot locate anything incriminating in the logs.”
“Worse still, there is nothing in them indicating any incriminating communications between us and any of the named parties in the appeal,” the response stated.
The justices questioned the authenticity of the call logs, stating that “the source is neither indicated nor are they certified.”
They also argued that “the lawyers who the petitioner alleged they were communicating with and described as ACN lawyers could not be described as ACN lawyers by reason of the diversity of persons and parties those lawyers have been representing.”
The response further stated that “there is nothing in the call logs to show the nature of the communications, either ethical or unethical.”
The report documented that Chief Oni, the petitioner, tendered two bundles of call logs consisting of 69 and 141 pages respectively (marked Exhibits 4 and 5).
A phone number 08034004887 was alleged to belong to Hon. Justice Salami and another number 08034010700 was alleged to belong to Mr. Tunji Ijaya.
Chief Oni testified that Mr. Ijaya’s number “came up many times” in the call logs. He also saw names of Lai Mohammed, the Publicity Secretary of ACN, and Yusuf Ali, SAN, described as an ACN lawyer in the Ekiti matter.
He stated that “on page 18 of Exhibit 8 that Justice Salami called Ijaya at 16:45 hours.”
Under cross-examination, Chief Oni stated: “It is not any imputation of criminality because we do not have here what was discussed or a text message. It is just to show there was communication and we do not intend to say somebody is a criminal. I want to make it clear. We are dealing more on the ethical issues.”
He added: “I cannot describe a communication as unethical if I do not know the content. I can say their communication in the manner it happened is unethical because I believe that a judge should not be so open with the party on the other side. The telephone calls were persistent.”
Pressed further, he said: “I believe that if the judgment is about to be given, there should be no communication between the judges and the parties before him and their Counsel.”
Otunba Ojo-Williams, the Acting Chairman of PDP Osun State Chapter, who adopted the contents of his reply to the response of the PCA and other Justices, confirmed “that there are two bundles of call logs which prove beyond reasonable doubt ‘that Justice Salami colluded to give a perverted judgment.'”
He tendered in evidence the call logs from different service providers which he said he collected from the Secretary of the Panel who downloaded them from the flash drive received from the National Security Adviser (NSA).
Under cross-examination, he said he obtained the call logs from MTN, Glo and others, and that his secretary who brought them to him insisted that the call logs were genuine.
The release of the report follows Odinkalu’s earlier challenge to Justice Salami’s credibility after the retired jurist blamed “wrong court judgment” for allowing Peter Obi to contest the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Labour Party.
“Peter Obi of the Labour Party ought not to have been allowed to contest election in the presidential election in the sense that by the time he lost PDP primary, Labour Party had submitted its list of members to INEC,” Salami had stated at an event where he was being honoured with the 2025 Human Rights Defender Award by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.
Odinkalu had initially responded: “I am sure I will find the report of the NJC Panel of 2011 into Justice Salami. I want to read it again…..”
The release of portions of the actual report represents the fulfilment of that promise.
The public release of the 2011 NJC report reopens questions about Justice Salami’s own record at a time when he has positioned himself as a critic of judicial standards.
By publishing the document without editorial comment and inviting the public to “reach your own conclusions,” Odinkalu has effectively put the retired jurist’s credibility on trial in the court of public opinion.
The controversy underscores the extent to which Nigeria’s judicial history continues to shape present-day debates about competence, integrity, and the moral authority to critique the bench.
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