Atake: Life Devoted to Pursuit of Truth and Justice

A Tribute to The Hon Justice F.O.M. Atake who passed away three weeks ago by ADEWALE THOMPSON

A mote it is to trouble the minds eve.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell
The graves stood tenantless and the sheated dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood
Disasters in the sun and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune’s Empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.
And even the like precurse of fierce events
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on
Have heaven and Earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and country-men.

The mightiest Julius fell on the Ides of March. But the mightiest Franklin passed away on
the kalends of March. Both to glorious eternity, the former before the Christian era (44 BC), the latter in the Christian era on the eve of on of Quinquagesima 2003 AD. The portents were clear that a brilliant star was turning into supernova but none of us ever believed that it was Frank until it happened.

It is a painful duty to have to write this tribute for someone who is junior in age; at 77, Franklin Oritse-mueyiwa Atake is in the same age bracket as the 80’s and so, whatever may be our personal objection ought to be subordinated to the will to providence which has decreed that the senior should pay the last tribute to an illustrious junior – that perhaps is the meaning of his name Oritse-Mueyiwa which when translated into western Yoruba means Oluwa lo mu eyi wa or Olumuyiwa meaning that this event has been ordained by God Himself.

The Hon. Justice FOM Atake was born on 6th May 1926 in Sapele. He had his primary education in Sapele but when it came to secondary education, his mother took him to Ibadan and placed him with the Principal of all Principals, Archdeacon E.O. Alayande in the same manner that the mother of Chief Bayo Akinnola placed him with the Archdeacon at Ibadan Grammar School from Ondo. Both had passed through the crucible of rigorous Christian training and today we could sing the success story of Bayo Akinnola, the Lisa of Ondo Kingdom as we are now singing for the Hon. Justice Atake who has left us behind. Ibadan Grammarians of the Alayande stable were first class in everything, Bola Ige was one of them. Fred Egbe is one of them. They were charitable and kind to their fellow men. They were humble and self-respecting. They were efficient all round. They personified the doctrine of charity enunciated by Paul in 15th Corinthians Chapter 13. On one occasion, the Hon. Justice Atake was visiting a friend and he found a man in a mood of total dejection pleading for help. Asked he, “what is the matter?” He was shown the auctioneer’s poster to sell out the man’s home where he lived with his family. All legal and other entreaties with the Bank had failed, “Is that all?” said Frank. He took his cheque book from his brief case and wrote the amount of the debt plus another ten thousand, all nearing six figures. The man bounced to life and a whole family was rescued from damnation. Such an act of charity is uncommon and is peculiar to the students of Alayande who himself can give away anything if only to rescue the perishing.

As a Legal Practitioner he was enrolled as number 417 on the all time list of lawyers registered to practice at the Nigerian Bar. (Source: Reminiscences at the Bar, 1991 at 46). Franklin Atake was a brilliant advocate, quick to discover the salient issues before the court and dogged in his pursuit there-of until victory is won. He has not been known to cave in even where the court has assumed the role of a bully. If that was what he brought from Lincoln’s Inn, London where he was called to the Bar in 1954, then all Lincolners must be proud of him.

On the Bench, he was fair and fearless and could not be intimated by the establishment. The case of the University of Ibadan undergraduates known as the Defence Pact Case is an example. Nine students of the University College of Ibadan (now University of Ibadan) were charged with conduct likely to cause a breach the peace before Franklin Oritsemueyiwa Atake, Chief Magistrate’s Court, Tapa Street, Lagos. The particulars of offence stated the rioting students of the University of Ibadan had travelled to Lagos to protest against the signing of a Defence Pact with Britain by the Tafawa Balewa Government of 1960. The students invaded Parliament and caused bodily harm to some powerful Ministers such as Festus Okotie Eboh (Finance), T.O.S. Benson (Information) and many others. The demonstration was broken up by the Police and nine of them were arrested and brought to Court. The atmosphere in the court room was tense. The Police had called for reinforcements. The following members of the Bar, offered their services free in defence of the boys. Adewale Thompson leading A.K.I Makanju, Aliyi Ekineh, Sobo Sowemimo and others. To ask the boys to plead not guilty was ridiculous. We therefore took the gamble to tell them to plead guilty relying on the juristic sagacity of the Magistrate to caution and discharge them under Section 435 of the then Criminal Procedure Act. After arguing for 90 minutes as to how any jail term will ruin the career of the defendants, the Magistrate adjourned to chambers to write his ruling. He was there for over an hour.

His ruling was balanced. He condemned the action of the students and accepted the plea of counsel to caution and discharge them, adding that they should be bound over to be of good behaviour for twelve months.
These students are today heavyweights in the society. The point which struck us most was that Festus Okotie Eboh was the Magistrates’ uncle and T.O.S. Benson was one of the two who sponsored him for enrolment to the Bar in Nigeria. These considerations did not deter the Magistrate from applying the wisdom of the law in favour of the defendants. This is what I stated of that landmark trial in my autobiography,  Reminiscences At The Bar at 65:

“We had advised the students to plead guilty so that I could address the court in Allocutus under section 450 of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance, requesting the magistrate to exercise his discretion to dismiss the charge because of the hardship a conviction will cause to the career of the students who were in their final year at the University College. That discretion included a decision of the magistrate to convict, which was not subject to appeal.
It was therefore a gamble that was taken because I had implicit confidence in the competence of the magistrate and his courage to do what was proper in the overall interest of society. He was not the type who would be afraid in such a sensitive case, in which parliamentarians had been assaulted and Parliament itself invaded. I am sure our gamble would have failed if that matter had come before another magistrate with timorous proclivities.”

Not surprisingly, years later, another Judge who appeared before Mr. Justice Franklin Atake had this to say; said Ephraim Akpata, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, in his autobiography Justice For All And By All  (1994) at 148:

“Justice F O M Atake was one of the most efficient Chief Magistrates before whom I practiced. He was……very quick in the uptake. His Judgements were well researched, well written and of high intellectual standard. Proceedings in his court were fast. To the best of my knowledge, he harassed no counsel or litigant……. Justice Atake was strong willed and highly principled and held fast to what he believed in. He was blunt, not deceptive…”

On retirement from the Bench, he lived in his native town Warri where he erected a modern home befitting a person of his enlightenment but circumstances forced him to live and die in Lagos where he had his youthful career as Magistrate. These circumstances, omitted in this tribute, speak eloquently of the character of Frank who has literally laid down his life for the TRUTH in spite of odds. Evil can only triumph, it cannot and has never been known to conquer.

Frank abandoned his mansion in Warri for a refugee life in his own country Nigeria because as at this point in time, the regimental colours of evil are flying high in that area of the country but someday the peoples of his native land Warri, will enjoy freedom from ghoulish tyranny and that is the time to remember that one of the architects of that victory had died in active service. No lettered monument can recount the agony and injury sustained in the fight. The TRUTH having been recorded already in the book of life.

As a Christian and a church man, he was Cathedral steward at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos; that however, did not affect his loyalty to his Church in Warri. When the pipe organ of the church was in need of drastic overhauling to remove the unwanted discordant notes, Frank employed the services of an expert from Lagos who restored it into harmony; when the fault persisted, Frank placed an order from abroad for a new one which is now in use.

When the Temple at Jerusalem was under construction, King Solomon appealed for assistance Dom Hiram King of Tyre. In like manner, when the Temple of Lodge Warri Highland No. 1357 (SC) was under construction, the Lodge was faced with the expenses of
“finishing”. It was Frank who mortgaged his only home in Warri with a Bank to raise the money for the completion of the great and holy work.
His demise as Past District Grand Master of Nigeria has caused a stir throughout the length and breadth of the country, and in the mother jurisdictions an Edinburgh, Dublin and London. It is obvious that we cannot recount in this brief space at our disposal all the achievements and virtues of the Honourable Justice Frank Oritse-mueyiwa Atake either as family man, as a friend or as a loyal citizen of his country. What we are unable to scribble down are already indelibly inscribed in the minds of those closer to him who would regard this write-up as a poor paraphrase of a vivacious life replete with the legacies he has bequeathed to us of courage, of honour, of discipline, of charity, of TRUTH, of JUSTICE and of fair-play

It is obvious that this conlocation of superlative virtues in the person of The Hon. Justice Franklin Atake cannot but generate inverse reactions in the minds of those on the other side of the moral divide. And so, we discovered that he had to fight his way through at all times, in order to do the right, and in so doing the scars of conflict cannot but be visible. Our consolation is that these have been wiped out by the volume of terrestrial goodwill pouring in from far and near.

To his wife and children and members of the family we say, “weep no more” for Frank has
merely departed from this sublunary abode in order to take his rightful place in the Elysian habitation of the saints.

To his numerous friends in and out of the country, we offer our commiseration with the full understanding that Frank is already in good company in the great beyond.

And to the brethren, we say in the language of the book, that our brother has merely responded to the demand of nature, which, after conducting him through the intricate windings of this mortal life, has finally taught him how to die free from the stain of falsehood and dishonour.

“Pretiosa in oculis domini
Mors sanctorum ejus”
(Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the
Death of His Saints – Psalm 116:15)
“And may his noble soul Rest in
Peace”
So mote it be.

Hon. Justice Adewale Thompson is formerly a Judge of High Court of Western Nigeria.