A former Appeal Court President, Justice Isa Ayo Salami (rtd) has said that former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi, shouldn’t have been allowed to contest the 2023 presidential elections under the banner of Labour Party (LP).

The retired jurist said this in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, on Tuesday during a courtesy visit and the presentation of an award by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) to him.

He attributed the error to the inadequacy and incompetence of some of the judges, who he claimed were responsible for some of the wrong verdicts, adding that the same thing happened to the Governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf.

He said- “For instance, Peter Obi ought not be allowed to contest the 2023 presidential election. In this sense, by the time he lost the PDP primary, LP had submitted its list of members to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“And the Constitution says there cannot be an independent candidacy, so how did he become a candidate of the LP if he does not belong to the LP?

“The same thing happened to the Governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf, who had now defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“His name is not in the NNPP’s register, but they issued him a membership card and the register is supposed to be the mother of the card.

“But the Supreme Court Countenanced it, even though the tribunal and Appeal Court frowned at it. That is the problem of competence.

“People get to the Supreme Court not because they are good but because there is a vacancy from their zones.

” They supersede people who are their seniors, whom they met at the Court of Appeal and who are more experienced than they are.

“I am a practical example. Some of them who came ten years after I had got to the Court of Appeal were recommended to the Supreme Court by me because my zone did not have a vacancy. That is the tragedy we have found ourselves in. We hope that with time, everything will be corrected,” he stated.

The retired Justice also expressed concern about the incompetence of some judges and the promotion to the bench without regard to excellence, saying that some of them lack the background to be judges.

According to him, “There are a few bad eggs amongst some judges. Strictly speaking, I will not say bad eggs. Some of them have a problem with learning. They don’t have a good background to be judges.

“Imagine appointing a higher registrar as a judge. He has no experience. In the past, this would not have happened.

“Maybe due to population explosion, we have everybody rearing law. Every university or college is trying to establish a law faculty. All these may be responsible, not because they are dishonest.

“Personally, they are inadequate. This might be responsible for their wrong judgments. At times, if you see the judgments of some of them, even the Supreme Court judgments, you will be astounded and wonder at what is happening.