Why Yahaya Bello Is Angry
Fresh facts have emerged on the agonising last days of the Chief Justice of Kogi State, the late Justice Nasiru Ajanah.
Justice Ajanah had reportedly died of COVID-19 on Sunday 28th June, 2020.
According to credible family sources, the man walked into an avoidable death as there was no credible evidence that he contracted the dreaded Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very bitter family member told this medium that what the judge complained of was malaria fever, over which he had even been treated with the local herbs.
“What gave us the confidence that all was well with him was that all the people close to him were tested along with him. His wife, driver and orderly were tested and they all came out negative.
“Inspite of this, he went to the isolation centre in Gwagwalada, Abuja expecting to be given a clean bill of health and to be back home this past Monday only for the family and the members of the public to be told that he passed on exactly two weeks after he got to the centre,” said a source.
Sources
revealed that it wasn’t as if his condition was bad, and that a family member
even volunteered to pay for the services of a nurse and that a sum of N500,000
(five hundred thousand naria) was agreed but that the CJ insisted on following
the laid down rules.
” He went to the isolation himself not that he was taken there, even the text
messages he sent to the family never indicated any cause for concern” said a
source.
The family source told us that the amiable judge died a broken and sad man as he complained of severe neglect and abandonment even when he requested to see his family or be discharged from the centre.
The source said that he was never a man given to unnecessary complaints or undue preferential treatment as a result of his office.
The family disclosed that the oxygen level of the jurist was 97 percent which to them was still okay, with a sources saying that “we were confident he was going to be discharged.”
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, who had been at loggerheads with the Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC) over issues relating to COVID-19 in Kogi State seriously faulted the claims of the parastatal that the late Chief Justice of the state, Justice Nasir Ajanah died of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The Governor maintained his opinion that the “disease was forced on the people for no just cause.”
Bello insisted that Justice Nasir Ajanah died of natural cause rather than the deadly virus, while disagreeing with the NCDC on the cause of the death of Ajanah.
Sources said that the Governor, who was once in a bitter confrontation with the amiable judge and made up with him before the last election in the state was particularly pained by this loss thus necessitating his recent outburst against the disease control agency.
Ajanah was however, buried in Abuja on Sunday June 28th according to Islamic rites.
In his sermon during the burial, Justice Nurudeen Khalifa urged Nigerians to live a life of emulation, pointing out that every man has a reward after death. He also advised Nigerians on good living while alive.
In his remarks, the son of the deceased thanked the state government for its support, describing his father’s death as painful.
The acclaimed “accomplished judge”, who died at the age of 64, was first appointed a high court judge by the Kwara State Government in 1990 and later transferred to Kogi when the state was created in 1991.
As a high court judge, Ajanah served in several jurisdictions across the state, including Ankpa (1991 to 1993), Isanlu (1994 to 1996) and Okene (1996 to 1999) before moving to Lokoja in 1999 where he served until his death.
Kogi Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Mouktar Atimah, condoled with the state government and the entire Ajanah family over the incident.
He described CJ’s death as shocking, coming when his services were most needed.
According to him, the late CJ will be remembered for his calmness, forthrightness and selfless service to the state and his community.
He prayed to God to grant the soul of the late CJ eternal rest and the bereaved family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
Ajanah’s death came barely one week after that of the former President of Kogi State Customary Court of Appeal, Shaibu Atadoga.
The late CJ started his education at the Local Authority (Central) Primary School Okene between 1962 and 1968. He proceeded to the Federal Government College, Keffi, in 1969 and was admitted by the same college for his Higher School Certificate (HSC) in 1974.
He studied Law at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and proceeded to the Nigerian Law School. He was called to the Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
His working career started with Kwara State Ministry of Justice where he served as State Counsel between 1982 and 1984. He later set up Nasiru Ajanah & Co. in Okene between 1985 and 1989 before he was appointed as a Judge of Kwara State High Court in 1990.
Ajanah served as Chairman, Kabba Disturbance Tribunal in Kogi State (1994); Chairman, Election Petition Tribunal in Adamawa State (1998); member of Governing Council, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (1999 to 2006); Chairman, Panel on Murtala Muhammed International Airport Fire Incident (2000); Chairman, Election Petition Tribunal in Akwa Ibom State (2007); and Chairman, Election Tribunal Petition in Rivers State (2008).
SOURCE: FIRST WEEKLY
