From Godwin Tsa Abuja
Col. Bello Fadile (retd) has recounted how the late Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais intervened on his behalf during his detention in 1995 over the alleged fathom coup by braving the military regime to ensure his release.
Col. Fadile, the first military-trained lawyer with a Doctorate degree in International Law in Nigeria, became one of the unlucky military officers who was sentenced to death by the military regime of the former Head of State, the late Gen. Sani Abacha.
He was arrested over the alleged 1995 fathom coup, tried and sentenced to death in the tragic saga that implicated dozens of prominent Nigerians, including former military Head of State, who.would later become first elected-President in 1999, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo; his erstwhile deputy, Maj.Gen Shehu Yar’Adua (who died in Abakaliki Prison and Brig. Gen. Lawan Gwadabe.
In his emotional tribute to the late CJN, Fadile recounted how he was “detained near his (Uwais) house and I sent a note to him as the then CJN. Without hesitation or fear of the military, his life or his job, he acted on my request and reached out to the late Honorable Justice Karibi-Whyte and together they raised my detention with the head of military government. And of course, they became my link to the head of state, going and coming back with messages. What a man with a lion heart.”
He further narrated how “On my release in March 1999, my Lord traveled from Abuja to Kaduna to see me. He came with clothes, bundles of sheda, and thousands of cash. That was my father in the judiciary for you. I was able to see him after 10 years in November 2024, and now he is no more.”
He highlighted Justice Uwais’s unwavering commitment to justice, humility, and integrity, while noting that “Uwais’s legacy serves as a shining example for the Nigerian judiciary.”
Quoting Uwais’s powerful statement: “A corrupt judge is more harmful to society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in a crowded street,” Fadile said Justice Uwais’s remarkable life and contributions to Nigeria’s judiciary will be remembered for generations to come.
Fadile, founder and chair of the Council for African Security Affairs, added that “his courage, integrity, and dedication to justice have left an indelible mark on the nation’s legal landscape.”
Part of the statement read: “At the ripe age of 89, he left us in this sinful world as Allah SWT willed. We accept the verdict as appeal lies nowhere. To we the immediate families, we pray to Allah SWT to give us the fortitude to carry on relying on the principles he lived on and left for us which are:- humility, impartiality, humane, love, detribalised, uprightness and fear of Almighty Allah SWT.
“And to the Nigerian judiciary which he dedicated his life to, I urge you all to follow his footsteps, which he captured brilliantly;
‘ A corrupt judge is more harmful to the society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in a crowded street. The latter can be restrained physically. But a corrupt judge deliberately destroys the moral foundation of society and causes incalculable distress to individuals through abusing his office while still being referred to as Honorable “
“As captured in my book, Lives: The Bello Fadile Memoirs, I shall forever be grateful to My Lord, the Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais GCON for the risk he took when I was arrested for the alleged fathom coup in 1995.”
