The National Judicial Council ( NJC ) was up in arms against Abia State over the suspension of Chief Judge Theresa Uzokwe. It says the government could not take that decision without its input, citing the Constitution. Yesterday, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu bowed to the NJC. He swore in Justice Onuoha Ogwe as the Acting Chief Judge.The NJC, some lawyers submit, has a case, but they note that the council has been in slumber for long, allowing judges to do as they like. ERIC IKHILAE writes.
ON January 26, the Abia State House of Assembly suspended Chief Judge Theresa Uzokwe and recomended that she be suspended. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu did and named Justice Obisike Orji as the Acting Chief Judge. The National Judicial Council(NJC) felt slighted by the action.
It voided Justice Uzokwe’s suspension, citing its powers under the Constitution. Under the Constitution, judges are appointed and removed upon NJC’s recommendation. The drama all started with a petition sent to the assembly by Dr Anthony Agbazuere and Mr Obinna Nkume, Executive Director and Director, Legal Services of the Global Centre for Peace and Justice, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
The January 22, 2018 petition is entitled: Justice Theresa Uzokwe’s unending acts of tyranny, infamy, gross misconduct and incompetence: urgent need to save the administration of justice in Abia.
It was presented in the House as a matter of urgent public importance by a member representing Ukwa West Constituency, Mezie Nwubani.
In a January 31 statement, the NJC overruled the governor; suspended Orji; asked Uzokwe to stay away from office and directed that the most senior judge, Justice Onuoha Arisa Kalu Ogwe, be appointed the Acting Chief Judge pending its final resolution of the dispute.
Yesterday, Governor Ikpeazu bowed to the NJC. He swore in Justice Ogwe as the Acting Chief Judge.
NJC recommendations
The statement by NJC’s Director of Information, Soji Oye, recommended:
•The suspension of the Chief Judge of Abia State by the state House of Assembly without a prior recommendation by the NJC violates the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
•Consequently, the subsequent act of appointing and swearing-in of Hon. Mr. Justice Obisike Orji as the Acting Chief Judge is invalid for being unconstitutional.
•Furthermore, the conduct of Hon. Mr. Justice Obisike Orji in presenting himself to be sworn-in raises potential questions of misconduct that Council is now looking into.
•Council, therefore, resolved to query and suspend the Hon. Mr. Justice Obisike Orji pending the outcome of its investigation.
•In view of the recent escalation, Council, in the interest of the smooth administration of justice in Abia State, resolved to direct the Chief Judge, Hon. Mr. Justice T. U. Uzokwe, to stay away from duties pending Council’s final decision after consideration of the report of its panels.
• In the prevailing circumstance whereby the NJC has directed the Chief Judge not to perform his duties, and the next most senior judge is suspended, the governor of Abia State shall appoint Hon. Mr. Justice Onuoha Arisa Kalu Ogwe, the next most senior judge, to act as the Chief Judge of Abia State, pending Council’s final resolution of the matter.
Ikpeazu, in apparent agreement with Section 158 and Paragraph 21 of Part One of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution, is said to have accepted the NJC’s decision, particularly in relation to the appointment of Ogwe.
Did NJC handle the crisis well?
While observers commended Ikpeazu for agreeing with NJC’s directive, many say the tardiness with which the NJC treated the matter before now, contributed to the degeneration of the dispute.
The NJC, in its January 31 statement, acknowledged being aware of the dispute in the Abia Judiciary.
Rather than assume its responsibilities and address the dispute dispassionately, it chose to farm out its responsibilities to some individuals it referred to as “some elderly Judicial Officers of Abia State Judiciary” for settlement.
Part of the statement reads: “It noted that its attention had been drawn to the crisis in Abia State Judiciary by petitions written against Hon. Mr. Justice T.U. Uzokwe and the one written by the Chief Judge against Hon. Mr. Justice C. U. Okoroafor.
“But in the course of the investigation by the Committees set up by Council, some elderly Judicial Officers of Abia State Judiciary waded in and pleaded with the committees to allow the matter to be resolved amicably by them, which was granted by council at its plenary.
“At the last meeting of council which was held on 6th December, 2017, council directed the Committees to continue and conclude with the petitions before them if there were no reports of the settlement by the peacemakers.
“While this was going on, the problem escalated and Council was informed of the suspension of Hon. Mr. Justice Uzokwe and the swearing-in of Hon. Mr. Justice Obisike Orji as the Acting Chief Judge.
“In the prevailing circumstance, whereby the National Judicial Council has directed the Chief Judge not to perform his duties, and the next most senior Judge is suspended, the Governor of Abia State shall appoint Hon. Mr. Justice Onuoha Arisa Kalu Ogwe, the next most senior Judge to act as the Chief Judge of Abia State, pending Council’s final resolution of the matter.”
Observers contended that, had the NJC accorded the case the seriousness it deserved and attended to it promptly, rather than yield its responsibility to some outsiders under some inexplicable guise, Abia State would have been saved this currently trouble of a Judiciary without a stable leadership.
They noted that the allegations of tardiness and double standard on the part of the NJC, in addressing petitions and complaints against judicial officers, is gradually becoming rampant and was increasingly robbing off on its dignity and the respect people have for it.
A dilly-dallying NJC?
The NJC’s handling of the Abia case and past cases where it had exercised some questionable discretion, observers argued, informed the need for an urgent review of the Council’s operations.
This, they said, relates to the need to maintain its neutrality at all times and attend to complaints against judicial officers with dispatch.
Observers recalled that the same allegations of delay and double standards were raised to justify the raiding of the houses of some judicial officers in October 2016.
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN), reportedly told a House of Representatives committee on November 29, 2016, that the raid by the Department of State Services (DSS) on judges’ homes was authorised because the NJC was reluctant to act on complaints of misconduct against the affected judges.
The ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives, headed by Garba Datti-Mohammed (All Progressives Congress from Kaduna State), was meant to investigate all cases of invasion of property and arrests of persons by the DSS from May 2015.
Malami was quoted to have said: “When we got the petitions, I had cause personally to write to the NJC, requesting that they take administrative steps to investigate the allegations contained in the petitions.
“A response was made to my office that the NJC could not act unless the petitions were accompanied with affidavits. But, I felt there were no reasons why the petitions could not be looked into on their own merit by placing sanctions on the AGF, while it was a constitutional obligation.
“Incidentally, multiple petitions were also written to the DSS and I requested that they equally write to the NJC to look into the petitions, but it was the same response the DSS got from the NJC that without a supporting affidavit the petitions could not be looked into.
“So, we have a situation where there is reasonable grounds for suspicion for commission of corruption and we have a body saddled with the primary administrative responsibility of looking at such things first, but it seems not to be cooperating in that respect,” Malami said.
Waning influence?
Observers also attributed the impasse that led to the crippling of judicial activities in Rivers State from 2014 to 2015 to NJC’s waning authority, mainly owing to the activities of some of its members.
Many argued that, but for the growing erosion of public confidence in the Judiciary as a whole, it would have been difficult to have state governments openly disagreeing with NJC on the choice of who becomes the Chief Judge of a State, as was the case with River State under Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
Other similar incidents included the faceoff between NJC and Adamawa State under Murtala Nyako, who insisted on having things done his way. The disagreement resulted in the state not having a substantive Chief Judge for over two years.
The immediate past administration in Abia State, under Governor Theodore Orji, also dared the NJC when it attempted to nominate a judge, who was 19th in the hierarchy of seniority in the state’s Judiciary, an attempt that was rejected by the NJC.
Partisanship allegation
Observers also recalled the controversial role the NJC played in the dispute between then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Aloysius Katsina-Alu and former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, which led to Justice Salami’s suspension until he retired from the Bench.
They argued that, had the NJC not adopted a partisan role in the dispute, which resulted from the handling of a political case, the dent suffered by the Judiciary to its name would have been averted.
Justice Salami also recently expressed his disappointment with the NJC when, while announcing his rejection of a recent appointment as the Chairman of the Corruption and Financial Crime Cases Trial Monitoring Committee (COTRIMCO), noted that the Judiciary neglected him when he needed its support.
Earlier in a speech he gave on October 31, 2013 at valedictory court session held in his honour on his retirement, Justice Salami likened his case to that of the biblical Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers.
He faulted the role the NJC played in the events leading to his suspension and claimed that by its conduct, the NJC sold out to the Executive and failed in its duties and functions.
Justice Salami said: “The last three years of my career were dogged by travails which are not dissimilar to the fate of Joseph in the book of Genesis in the Bible. As his brothers conspired to destroy him by throwing him into a well and selling him into slavery, my learned brothers and friends in the legal profession planned and executed evil against me.
“The NJC created by the Constitution to protect me, nay any judicial officer, was on the vanguard of my travails. The NJC failed in its duties and thereby surrendered its functions to the Executive arm of government, thus, ingratiating itself to the Executive
“At the inauguration of the most recent batch of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloma Mukhtar, was on record as advising the Executive and Legislative arms of government that the NJC is the final authority in matters concerning judicial officers.
“This, to my mind, is superfluous, as all the powers needed by the NJC is enshrined in the Constitution. It is, therefore, left to the NJC to perform its functions or duties in accordance with the Constitution.
“For instance, the NJC having cleared me of any wrongdoing, following the recommendations of Justice Aloma Mukhtar’s committee, ought to have recalled me to office without asking the President to exercise the power that he does not possess, on the flimsy excuse that it had earlier referred the matter to him.
“In truth, as a matter of courtesy, all it needed to do was to write the President that in view of its recent decision, this matter was now outside his purview. After so informing him, NJC would be free to take the necessary step to implement its decision.
“The position in which NJC has found itself is similar to that of the proverbial cock that betrayed itself to the fox that what was on his head was not fire and encouraged the fox to touch it. The fox, having satisfied itself that truly it was not fire, has since been hunting cocks to make menu of them.
“Also, when the report of the committee the NJC set up to make recommendation on Umaru Abdullahi’s report was submitted to it for ratification, neither the CJN nor the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court was present at the meeting.
“Justice Moses A. Bello, who was neither the CJN nor the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court, took it upon himself to preside at the meeting, contrary to the express provisions of sub-paragraph (a) and (b) of paragraph 20 of the Third Schedule of the Constitution.”
Justice Salami noted that by those provisions, “no other members of the NJC, including statutory members, could be Chairman”.
He argued that by claiming to be Acting Chairman of NJC in the two letters he (Justice Bello) wrote to him, dated August 9 and 18 2011, he (Justice Bello) was an impostor, because he was neither a Justice of the Supreme Court, next most senior Justice of the court nor the CJN.
“This is the levity with which the NJC treats matters of national importance. Clearly, Justice Bello has not only behaved irresponsibly, but also recklessly,” he said.
Justice Salami noted that the meeting at which Justice Bello presided and took the far reaching decision to suspend him took place when his application for an order restraining the NJC from deliberating on his case was pending before the Federal High Court.
He argued that the consequence of Justice Bello’s conduct is that both meetings he presided over and the decision taken “are null and void”.
“It is this illegal decision that the NJC had been relying upon to keep me out of office from August 18, 2011,” Salami lamented.
He regretted that the NJC, a body set up to protect judicial officers, “dealt so cruelly with me.”
Lawyers back NJC
Senior lawyers including Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN), Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) and Dr. Salisu Abdulazeez, who assessed NJC’s handling of the Abia crisis, commended it for being decisive.
They, however, advocated a reform that will prevent delays in its determination of complaints against judges.
Ngige commended the NJC’s decision on the Abia issue.
“Even though it took long in coming, it is better than never,” he said.
He noted that the mess in Abia State Judiciary had been festering for too long and has embarrassed everybody, both within and outside the state.
“People were asking where NJC was when the relationship in the Abia Judiciary deteriorated from bad to worse.
“So, we are happy that they have come now to wield the big stick, to call the warring parties to order.
“First is the person, who came forward to offer himself to be sworn-in as an Acting Chief Judge, knowing that such an appointment is unconstitutional.
“The second is the substantive CJ, who is in the centre of the storm and who has now been asked by the NJC to step aside, while another person has been appointed as the Acting CJ. And, I learnt that the g overnor has accepted,” he said.
Ngige urged NJC to punish Justice Orji.
“My appeal is that the NJC should be lenient with the person who offered himself to be made an Acting CJ unconstitutionally, because it was out of necessity that he probably offered himself to be sworn-in to save the judiciary that has almost collapsed.
“They should look at what he has done with some understanding. They should warn him and allow him to go.
“This also calls into play the need for NJC to fast track its process of dealing with petitions against judges.
“Also, the idea of allowing a third party to intervene in a pending petition before the NJC, as was done in the Abia case by some so called elderly judicial officers, should not be allowed.
“There is a procedure for writing petition against a judicial officer. Once that procedure is complied with, no matter the request for intervention from any elder or group of elders, the NJC should stick to its responsibility of looking into the petition.
“If there is a case to be answered, the affected person should be called upon.
“They should not allow any intervention for settlement. NJC is not where royal fathers settle dispute.
“It handles cases involving judicial officers, who determine other people’s fate.
“It amounts to compromising misconduct when you allow interference on the pretext of settlement. I hope the NJC has learnt from this,” Ngige said.
‘NJC should be a volcano’
Ozekhome also praised the NJC for its decision on the Abia crisis, but disagreed with Ngige on the involvement of some “elderly judicial officers” from Abia State.
He argued that there was nothing wrong in allowing arbitration and conciliatory options in the resolution of any dispute.
He added: “I believe there was political undertone in this whole case. I suspect the lady was being haunted because she is from Anambra and not Abia State.
“Two wrongs cannot make a right. The fact that she is not from the state does not confer on the state’s Assembly the power to remove her.
“From this moment, and to prevent a recurrence, I will suggest that the NJC should not be a sleeping magma. It should rather be like a volcanic eruption.
“When cases are reported, they should quickly look into such cases with promptitude and dispense justice, because justice delayed is justice denied, just as justice rushed is justice crushed.
“There must be a balance. You cannot, for example, sit on an issue and expect an implosion not to occur.
“But, I do not believe that NJC is wrong this time, because what I learnt was that some elders intervened and said ‘let us see how we can settle this matter’.
“There is nothing that cannot be settled. It is not a crime to say ‘let us settle and reconcile’,” Ozekhome said.
‘NJC must improve case resolution mechanism’
Dr. Abdulazeez argued that the delay created by the NJC accounted for the Abia State House of Assembly’s decision to resort to self-help.
He commended that governor for accepting NJC’s decision on the issue.
But, he suggested that NJC must work on the pace of its case resolution mechanism to ensure prompt determination of complaints against judicial officers.
