Retiring Adamawa Chief Judge, Justice Nathan Musa, has recounted his experiences with demonic defendants, including a widely acclaimed witch doctor and how he triumphed over them.
Nathan Musa, at a ceremony in which he was formally retired from service on Friday, recalled how his mother taught him to overcome evil and how he applied the lesson successfully throughout his career as a judge.
Taking the testimony from his speech during a Valedictory Court Session organised in his honour at the High Court complex in Yola, Nathan Musa said, “I remember the time I was appointed to the lower bench as a magistrate/upper area court judge when friends and kit and kin felt that I needed to procure protection from marabouts. In my young ignorant days, I followed the advice.
“I remember going to one boka (marabout) to collect such protection charms which I used to put on my finger and under my pillow when sleeping. This became a ritual for me until one day my mother noticed it and confronted me.
“She spoke to me in these words: ‘My son, I have noticed all that you are doing in the name of protection. Please throw away all those things. As Your mother, I am assuring you that as long as you do your work properly, doing the right thing, nothing will harm you. Just trust in God for protection. However, I warn you to be careful with your drinking, because you can be poisoned’.”
The retiring chief judge said armed with those words, he threw away his charms, leaning only on ‘doing the right things’ explaining, “The advice from my mum became my mantra. It resonated in my mind.”
He said the advice gave him the courage to face otherwise devilish defendants whose cases were coming before him.
“Perhaps that was why while serving in Takum (in present-day Taraba State), despite all fears and premonitions about convicting a notorious wicked witch doctor which I did for the offence he was charged with, nothing happened to me as was envisaged by many people.”
He urged judges at all levels to dispense justice in accordance with the law and the fear of God because if they do the right thing, no force can break them.
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri who was at the event said Justice Nathan Musa had been a workhorse whose sense of humanity endeared him to all who encountered him.