Retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Niki Tobi, has died. Tobi
passed on in the early hours of Friday at the National Hospital, Abuja.
His corpse was later moved to the morgue of Garki General Hospital. The
retired judge had been having grave health issues since 2011. He
subsequently went blind and totally lost his memory. Tobi was appointed
to the Supreme Court in 2002 and retired in July 2010 after attaining
the age of 70.
His record of service was significantly blighted
by his membership of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, which
validated the flawed 2007 presidential election that installed the late
President Umaru Yar’ Adua. Tobi and other members of the tribunal were
said to have been heavily induced by Yar’ Adua who, in his inaugural
speech as president, admitted that his election was flawed. One of the
promises made to him as part of the compensation for delivering a
crooked verdict was that his son Ebowei Tobi, a high court judge, would
be elevated to the Court of Appeal. That promise was, however, not kept,
after Saharareporters exposed it to the public, leaving him frustrated.
Born
July 14, 1940 in Esanma in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State,
Tobi was an academic before his career on the bench. As an academic, he
was variously the Dean, of Faculty of Law, University of Maiduguri and
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Services) of the same institution.