By Richard Akinnola
He was a mechanical engineer but he possessed the erudition of men of wig and gown, while at the same time, he was a consummate researcher and litigant and I had the privilege of covering a number of his cases.
In the Last two years before his death, in September 1984, late Professor Ayodele Awojobi, a Mechanical Engineer by profession, spent more time in the law courts than some lawyers. He, in fact, instituted more than 10 suits against the Shehu Shagari administration and some politicians of the Second Republic but he never won any, which made people to dub him a “professional litigant”.
While some saw him as an irascible menace, others, particularly members of the Shagari administration saw his unending litigations against the government as a demonstration of his nuisance value. But there were others who saw his actions as a demonstration of his obsession for justice and fair play.
Most of his cases were filed at the Federal High Court. That was prior to June 10, 1983 when the Supreme Court in the case of Bronik Motors settled the dust on the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court. Prior to the judgement, there were conflicting claims on the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court and the State High Court. Awojobi decided to file his cases at the Federal High Court.
Lawyers are trained not to be emotionally involved in their cases. Just argue your case and leave it to the court to decide. But Awojobi not only filed his cases himself, he argued them in court because he said he did not have the patience for lawyers “to accommodate my cases within their own schedules”.
Due to the patriotic fervour that propelled him to files these cases, Awojobi became too emotional with his cases. Each time he felt very strongly about a particular case, he would break down and weep in court.
On March 30, 1983, he instituted an action against the then Ondo State gubernatorial candidate of the then defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Chief Akin Omoboriowo.
According to him, Chief Omoboriowo was not fit to contest because he changed political parties contrary to the provisions of the constitution.
But on the day the hearing was to commence, Prof. Awojobi came late to court and when he was asked by the judge why he was late, the engineering Professor’s answer was laced with technical jargons. “I crave the court’s indulgence to take the court on a mechanical vibration excursion”, he said.
Professor Awojobi was trying to drive home his point that his life was in danger because his car was tampered with. And in an attempt to explain how his car was tampered with, he had to take the court on a “mechanical vibration excursion”.
And midway into his explanation, the Professor’s voice grew unsteady.
He stuttered and started shedding tears in the courtroom. He was always close to tears when he felt that he had brought an important issue to the court and the case thrown out on technical grounds, that he had no locus standi.
He once fought one of his cases to the Supreme Court and, as usual, lost. While dismissing the appeal, Justice Anthony Aniagolu referred to Professor Awojobi as a “frivolous and vexatious litigant”.
This drew the ire of the Professor who vehemently protested to the justice as he charged “You call me a frivolous and vexatious litigant …?” As he howled, pointing at the Justices as he moved towards them, the justices quickly rose and retreated into their chambers, to enable Awojobi depart before they came back to the court room. And Awojobi cried.
Alhaji Shehu Shagari was under persistent legal attacks from the Professor who patriotically felt there were several things going wrong that needed to be challenged. Ordinarily, these were triable issues but each time, the court would deny him the locus.
In March 1983, Awojobi sued President Shagari over the expenditure of N150 million contingency funds in the 1980, 1981 and 1982 Appropriations Accounts. And when the Electoral Act came out, meticulous as he was, Professor Awojobi detected seven versions and went to court.
He said the seventh version of the Act contained “26 textual errors and 152 dislocations of printing characters”. He, therefore, askedthe court to order the impeachment of President Shagari over the existence of these versions.
But Mr. Justice Fred Anyaegbunan, then Chief Judge of the Federal High Court struck out the suit on March 29, 1983 saying “it would amount to usurping legislative process to order the impeachment of the President”.
On April 11, 1983, Professor Awojobi also sued the then Bendel State gubernatorial candidate of the defunct NPN, Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, to stop him from submitting his nomination papers for the election.
His reason was that Ogbemudia was “constitutionally disabled” from contesting elections in any public office for 10 years from February 1976 “having been duly punished for alleged dishonesty while he was military governor of former Mid-Western State”. The case got to the Supreme Court and was dismissed.
One of his last interesting cases was the one filed on August 20, 1983 when he was seeking the nullification of the 1983 Presidential election. His contention, which was quite logical, was that the numbers of the registered voters were inflated.
He disclosed that the 1963 census figures of 57 million Nigerians used for the election, was constitutionally entrenched in Section 69 of the 1979 Constitution.
He claimed that eligible voters in 1983 could not have exceeded the 1963 population figures, minus all Nigerians who had died in the 19 years between 1963 and 1982.
Applying pure logic, he argued that “all children born after 1964 would be below the age of 18 years in August 1982 when FEDECO conducted the registration exercise”. As logical as this argument was, Awojobi lost because the court said he had no locus standi.
With these litany of litigations, his doggedness, tenacity, steadfastness and patriotism, Awojobi sought to expand the terrain of freedom and the space for democratic principles.