Salami suspended •NJC recommends his compulsory retirement to Jonathan •Very unfortunate, we’ll challenge it - Salami’s counsel •Musdapher recommended as Katsina-Alu’s successor

EMPLOYERS of the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, the National Judicial Council (NJC) on Thursday recommended him to President Goodluck Jonathan for compulsory retirement over misconduct.
While the recommendation to the president is still being processed, the Council also, pending his eventual compulsory retirement, suspended him from office with effect from yesterday.
He was subsequently directed to hand over the affairs of the Court of Appeal to the next most senior Justice of the court.
Before the president would endorse the recommendation of the council, he would have to revert to the Senate for the proclamation by a two-thirds majority.
The council, in a statement signed by the council’s Director of Administration, Mr Eugene.I. Odukwu, said “pursuant to the powers conferred on the NJC in the 1999 Constitution, as amended, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, President of the Court of Appeal, has been suspended from office with effect from today, August 18, 2011. Meanwhile a recommendation has been made to the president to retire him from service.”
It was also learnt that at the meeting on Thursday that Justice Dahiru Musda-pher was recommended as the successor to the retiring CJN, Justice Katsina-Alu, with his name reportedly forwarded to the president as demanded by the constitution, for onward transmission to the Senate.
Katsina-Alu retires on  August 28, 2011.
However, the legal team of Justice Salami, on Thursday, expressed shock at the decision of the NJC, saying that the action would be challenged.
In a statement signed by Chief Akin Olujimi, Chief Ricky Tarfa, Chief Adeniyi Akintola, Chief Emeka Ngige and Chief Adebayo Adelodun, the team said “in the light of all these, we in the legal team of Justice Salami find the decision of the NJC to go ahead and take action against our client, in spite of the pendency of the action in court, as very, very unfortunate.”
Meanwhile, the Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the removal of Justice Salami as a lession to all.
The state party chairman, Chief Sunday Ojo-Williams, in a statement, said the sack of Salami was a welcome development, adding that the incoming CJN and other stakeholders should carry out cleansing of the judiciary.
Also, former governor of Ekiti State, Chief Segun Oni, has described the suspension of Justice Salami as “good riddance to bad rubbish,” adding that “this is the beginning of the end for perpetrators of black market judgments and judicial infamy in Nigeria.”
Speaking through his media aide, Mr Wale Ojo-Lanre, Oni said “we ain’t see nothing yet, since we are still at the middle of the judicial melodrama.”